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ARTHUR AND HIS MOTHER. 


[Page 23 .] 


ShowYour Colors; 


or, 


A Story of Boston Life. 


BY 


JUSTIN D. FULTON, D.D. 



NEW YORK ; 

U. D. WARD 

No. 150 Nassau St. 


/ 



s 


\ 


Copyright, 1875, by U. D. Ward. 


4 


Lange, Little & Co., 

PRINTERS, ELECTROTYrERS AND STEREOTYPERS, 

108 to 114 Wooster Street, N. Y. 


THE YOUTH OF OUR CHURCHES 


AND OF OUR HOMES 

THIS VOLUME 

IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED 


By the Author. 



PREFACE. 


On one of the mountains in New Hampshire there is a 
human face, carved in the rock by an unseen hand. Daniel 
Webster, standing with a company of gentlemen who repre- 
sented different portions of the country, paused and directed their 
attention to Profile Rock, and said : “ Gentlemen, merchants 
hang up their signs over their stores, telling what they keep to 
sell. That face on that bold granite peak declares to all the 
world that New England has a commission from the Almighty 
to grow men.” Whether the reader has seen the sign or not, the 
people of all lands are familiar with the fact that this portion of 
New England wares brings a sure premium wherever her cul- 
tured sons and daughters find a home. 

Arthur Chester, the son of a Unitarian clergyman, represents 
the average New England boy. Robert Graham is an illustra- 
tion of what maybe done by a youth who loves Christ and dares 
stand up for the truth. Alice and Nina Hollister are bright and 
beautiful specimens of the women who are the centers of influ- 
ence which give tone to society, and illustrate the truth that 
there is something better for women to do than imitate the bal- 
let-girls of Paris or waste the possibilities of youth amid fashion- 
able frivolities and demoralizing dissipations. 

In the homes such as we have described, linked armor is 
woven for the soul which withstands the temptations of life. It 
is what the child is within, that makes contact with the world 
perilous. Be true to the young, teach them to be true to them- 
selves by giving to Christ a welcome, and they will outride the 
storm and may defy the billows. Believing that the heart wants 
heart, and that it is possible at a tender age to twine the tendrils 


6 


Preface. 


of love about the strong support of the Cross, the way to Calvary 
has been described, and the spiritual conflicts incident to the 
new birth have been portrayed, while the victor’s wreath and 
the Christian’s joy have been set forth in language which every 
child of God will understand. 

The book was written with the feeling that it is time that a 
class of children, such as we love and honor in our churches and 
homes, be described. Novelists delight to dig out of the filth 
and degradation of society a jewel which proves to be the son 
of a nobleman, and comes to the possession of fabulous wealth, 
while the sons and daughters on whom we must build our hopes 
of future growth are ignored, as though jewels that have been 
polished and set were wanting in value, or as if there was noth- 
ing romantic in goodness, and no beauty to be desired in unos- 
tentatious piety. 

This book but feebly portrays the author’s sincere respect for 
the young men and women who are brave and true enough to 
accept the teachings of the Bible as the rule of their faith and 
practice, by refusing to “ sow wild oats,” or to enter the paths 
of sin ; but who, instead, seek “ to walk in the way of good men 
and keep the paths of the righteous,” and spend their strength 
in lifting up Christ, that all may be drawn unto Him. 

J. D. F. 


Brooklyn, March 1st, 1875. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER I. 

Boston of the Olden Time 9 

CHAPTER II. 

Arthur at Home 23 

CHAPTER III. 

The Struggle Begun, not Ended 38 

CHAPTER IV. 

Alice Hollister’s Home J 49 

CHAPTER V. 

Arthur’s Mother 65 

CHAPTER VI. 

College Life — Its Opportunities and Temptations.. . 76 


8 


Contents. 


CHAPTER VII. 

The Revival — Its Influence in the College and in 

Homes, 88 

CHAPTER VIII. 

The Dinner — Begun in Sunshine, Ending in Cloud. . . 102 

CHAPTER IX. 

The Illness of Rev. Mr. Chester — His Struggle and 

what it Brought 112 

CHAPTER X. 

The Sabbath — The Preaching of Mr. Knapp and its 

Result I2 8 

CHAPTER XI. 

The Struggle with Unbelief 148 

CHAPTER XII. 

The Restoration of Mr. Chester, and Arthur’s 

Profession of Faith 162 

CHAPTER XIII. 

Religion a Help, Not a Hindrance 188 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Learning and Testing 201 


SHOW YOUR COLORS; 

OR, 

A STORY OF BOSTON LIFE. 


CHAPTER I. 

BOSTON OF THE OLDEN TIME. 

Arthur Chester was a boy of whom any 
father might well be proud. Born in Bos- 
ton, and proud of his birth-place, he grew 
up amid the fostering influences that people 
the air, look out from the buildings, and ram- 
ify and circulate among its crooked streets. 
The town is the outgrowth of the civilization, 
education, and peculiarities that distinguish 
New England life. The history of Boston 
links the nation to the stern days of Puri- 
tanism. There the Revolutionary struggle 
began. The names of James Otis, John 
Adams, and Samuel Adams of the past are 
no more glorious than are the names of 
men who have fought the battles through 
which the fathers commenced. The town 


IO 


Show Your Colors . 


is distinguished no more for Faneuil Hall, 
the cradle of liberty, than for its Latin 
school, the cradle of genius, where an Ed- 
ward Everett, Wendell Phillips, and Charles 
Sumner were schooled. Its old South 
Church is no more creditable to its past his- 
tory than is Tremont Temple to its present, 
and the little library which was founded by 
the fathers was but a forerunner to the 
Free Library which is the heir-loom of 
every Boston boy and girl. Bunker Hill Mon- 
ument, that attracts thousands to Charles- 
town, is only one of a class of monuments 
which inspire patriotic sentiments and edu- 
cate the rising generation to love and defend 
liberty. Boston is in many ways peculiar to 
itself. No other city has its educational ad- 
vantages. The schools are of the highest 
order, the lecture courses, the free libraries, 
the reading-rooms, the cultured men and 
women often seen in public meetings and 
always honored, the preachers that fill the 
pulpits, the elegant homes, stored with art 
and lined with libraries, Harvard in the sub- 


Show Your Colors. 1 1 

urbs, with the shaded roads and quiet paths 
of Cambridge, the tree where Washington 
assumed command, the house in which he 
lived, and where Longfellow finds a home, 
the church in which he worshiped, the pic- 
ture-gallery in which are his best portraits, 
with those of Adams, Story, Franklin, 
Whitefield, and other names not born to die 
— all this helps to make Boston the Athens 
of America. Of all this, and of much 
more besides connected with Boston’s past 
and present, Arthur Chester was proud. 
His father was a Unitarian minister of the 
Evangelical school, whose home in a neigh- 
boring town was near enough to Boston to 
keep him in rapport with the intellectual life 
of the great city. He had graduated at 
Harvard, and retained a knowledge of the 
classics to such an extent that he not only 
fitted his own son for the university, but fur- 
nished a good resort where many a wild 
and reckless boy might get tamed down and 
helped to regain a standing in his class. 

Arthur was a wild and rollicksome youth. 


Show Your Colors . 


1 2 

He was handsome in form and feature, gen- 
erous to a fault, quick, witty, and versatile. 
His mother believed in him, and never 
joined in any prophecies against him, but kept 
the lamp of a mother’s faith burning brightly, 
not only upon the altar of her heart, but in 
the parish where she walked and worked. 
She lived and wrought for Arthur. The 
father believed in his boy having a good 
chance to make the most of himself. He 
gave Arthur a good start, and so he entered 
college well up in the languages, mathemat- 
ics, and general literature. He was a good 
musician and a good singer, and the boy 
inherited his taste for music, and by dili- 
gence acquired skill. Though in moderate 
circumstances, the father determined that 
his boy should have help sufficient to keep 
him in good heart, and not enough to cause 
young men to seek his acquaintance because 
of any adventitious help which might be 
hoped for through his money. Arthur’s 
childhood had been passed in the quiet of 
his home, surrounded by the chastened and 


Show Your Colors. 13 

refined atmosphere of the parsonage. His 
mother had faith in boys. She saw in a 
child not only the possibilities of manhood, 
but more than that. She believed that the 
boy was a type of what he would be as a 
man. If he was frank, generous, truthful, lov- 
ing, and lovable as a boy, he would be the 
same as a man. She, therefore, built on her 
son. She made him her society. She sang 
with him. They played duets together on the 
piano. They kissed each other like lovers 
when they met and when they parted. She 
dreamed of his progress, and told the boy 
her dreams. Arthur lived for his mother 
for years. Her praise was his reward. Her 
frown was his punishment. He went to col- 
lege. The father, as he left him at Harvard, 
folded him to his breast, and said: “My 
son, you have the world before you. It is 
possible for you to be a man whom the 
world will honor, or one from whom it will 
turn with shame. The keeping of your future 
is in your own hands ” and then he left him. 
At the outset his letters were full of filial 


H 


Show Your Colors. 


love. He described his professors. He 
told them of what he read and studied. He 
described his companions, and gloried in his 
Christian chum, Robert Graham, who was a 
member of the Baptist Church, and was in 
many ways a model. 

At length the letters came less frequent. 
The old love seemed to have died out of 
them. The mother’s heart was full of 
anxiety. There was a strange and an unac- 
countable reserve in them. Tidings came 
of the great revival, which was stirring Bos- 
ton to its center. The students were 
attending the meetings. The college was 
full of excitement. He who had been am- 
bitious to win fame and position as a lawyer 
and in the political world, was asking ques- 
tions about the atonement, the punishment 
of the sinner after death, the decrees of God, 
and the needs of the soul. The wild and 
rollicksome nature was under a spell. He 
knew God enough to dread Him, to revolt 
from His rule, and to try and keep far away 
from the point of submission. The chum 


Show Your Colors . i5 

believed that the boy might be a power for 
good. He was sure he would be a power 
for harm unless his heart was changed and 
his will was brought into subjection to the 
mind and will of Christ. The battle was 
long, and at times terrible. The leader of 
the Evangelical prayer-meeting came into 
the room, and, in a brusque way, inquired, 
“ Where is Arthur ? ” 

“ Not home yet, ’ replied Robert Graham, 
with a look of troubled interest. 

“ Where has Ire been ? ” 

“ Don’t know ; he went off with a com- 
pany of boys to Boston, last evening, to 
attend the theater.” 

“ I thought he was under conviction ? ” 

“ So he is, and under compulsion, also.” 

“ What do you mean ? ” 

“ Simply this : the devil is driving him 
with whip and spur. Arthur is giving him- 
self up to the powers of darkness. He is a 
Unitarian. He does not believe in Christ 
nor in the devil ; but in manhood and vir- 
tue, and in taking care of himself. He has 


1 6 Show Your Colors . 

to get ashamed of what his manhood will do 
for him. I am afraid he is trampling on vir- 
tue, and proving that he is unable to take 
care of himself, and that he will be com- 
pelled to believe in the atonement of Jesus 
Christ before he will get any release from 
the power of the devil.” 

'‘He seems like a different youth from 
what I thought him.” 

“ Ah, you have not seen Arthur Chester 
for some time. I miss him. The boy I 
loved is here no more. The house is here, 
but the soul has an inhabitant that is de- 
stroying the man. Satan was and is trying 
to ruin him.” 

“Will he succeed? ” 

“No.” 

“Why?” 

“Because the Infinite Father has a great 
work for him to do, and he will be brought 
out of his present state of wretchedness, 
from the gall of bitterness and bonds of 
iniquity into the light and liberty of the 
gospel.” 


Show Your Colors. 


17 

“ What makes you think it ? ” 

Faith in God, the hearer and answerer 
of prayer. The arrow of truth rankles 
m his heart and conscience. To drown 
thought he plunges into dissipation, but, as 
when a whale struck by a harpoon which is 
buried in the heart, causes him to redden 
the wave by his blood, you know he may 
flounder, he may dive down into terrible 
depths of ocean, he may come to the surface 
and fill the air with water-spouts, there is 
but one result ; the creature must die. So 
Arthur must yield. There are trials in his 
path of which we know nothing. He has 
Unitarian parents. They are moral. They 
believe in morality, but not in Christ. They 
are not prepared either to sympathize with 
him or to help him; Indeed, I think both 
his father and mother enjoy hearing of 
his going to theaters, and concerts, and 
races, because of their hope that this will 
take out of his mind the one absorbing 
thought which holds him in thrall ; but God 
has hold of him, and I am much mistaken if 


1 8 Show Your Colors . 

he does not hold on to him, and finally, 
through our instrumentality, bring him to 
Himself.” 

As they were talking, in came Arthur. 
The old beauty was fading out of his 
face — the marks of dissipation were 
visible. 

“ Helloe, old fellow, how are you?” 

“Well, thank you, Arthur; how are 
your 

“ Never better. Had an awful time last 
night. We were at the Boston theater, 
and heard Forrest in Metamora. It was 
grand. You have no idea how he thrilled 
the house, especially when he repeated 
a passage which reminded the audience 
of what he had lost in the going out of his 
wife.” 

“ Indeed ; Robert and I hoped you were at 
the revival meeting.” 

“Bosh! I was there Sunday, and got 
enough. Indeed, I have not got over 
it yet. Jacob Knapp is a wonder. He 
is not dramatic. He is not an orator. But 


Show Your Colors. 


19 


there are tones in his voice and thoughts 
in his words which haunt me as eagles 
haunt the mountain air. Last Sabbath 
night, at Bowdoin Square, he preached 
about the lost in hell. He came down 
out of the pulpit, walked down the aisle, 
went down the basement stairs shouting, 
‘ Lost ! — lost ! — lost ! — lost ! ’ — his voice grow- 
ing lower and lower, and sounding farther 
and farther off, until I thought I heard the 
wail of the damned. The fact is, I could not 
sleep. I said : ‘ Suppose my father is wrong; 
suppose Christ was a necessity ; suppose the 
Garden of Gethsemane means what it says ; 
suppose Calvary is the pivotal fact in the 
universe, as he says it is.’ I seem to see him 
now, as he resumed his place in the pulpit, 
not a particle excited or disturbed by the 
billowy waves of excitement which were 
dashing about him. Knapp in the pulpit is 
as much of a study as Forrest on the boards, 
and so I wrote my mother. I described him 
to her. Would you like to hear my pen 
photograph of Jacob Knapp?” 


20 


Show Your Colors . 


“Yes,” answered both of his com- 
panions. 

He opened his letter-book and read : 

“ Jacob Knapp is a curiosity. He is a 
little over five feet in height, with an ordi- 
nary head upon a pair of broad shoulders, big 
arms, small hands, small feet, an eye that 
bespeaks courage, and yet not a pleasant 
feature of his face. His eyebrows are large, 
his eyelids fall down very close at times, and 
never open wide excepting he is greatly 
moved. When his eye opens to its full 
extent, then you may expect to hear some 
of the sharpest utterances that ever fell from 
mortal lips. He believes in God, in Jesus 
Christ, in the Holy Spirit, and he feels that 
he is commissioned by the Almighty to 
break in pieces the devil’s kingdom. He is 
drawing great crowds, and I go to hear him 
with pleasure as great as I ever experienced 
in a theater. Indeed, I have not been to a 
Unitarian Church for weeks* Wm. Ellery 
Channing’s theology is well enough, and so 
is Dr. Gannet’s ; but if you are going to 


Show Yo7tr Colors. 


21 


have religion, why not have something 
worth while. Y ours, 

“ Arthur Chester.” 

“ What do you suppose mother wrote 
me ? ” 

“ Don’t know,” said John Becker; “per- 
haps that it was a critical moment in your 
life, and that you had best consider the mat- 
ter and come home and spend the Sab- 
bath.” 

“ Exactly, and so I am going home, and 
will be back Monday.” 

Home he went, and after he had passed 
out Robert remarked : 

“ Now you understand the boys difficul- 
ties. His father and mother were anxious 
about him. No one but a parent can pic- 
ture what this anxiety is. To see a son of 
hope and promise on the borderland of 
hope, and yet in danger of swinging to the 
other extreme, and becoming a moral 
wreck, and to feel that the person described 
is your own flesh and blood — a part of 
yourself ; to feel the tug and the strain at 


22 


Show Your Colors. 


the heart, and to realize that but a few days 
will decide the destiny — this is to experience 
such anxiety and such bewildering torture 
as cannot well be put into language.” 


Show Your Colors. 


23 


CHAPTER II. 

ARTHUR AT HOME. 

The corning' home of a boy from college 
is, at all times, an exciting fact in the life of 
a home. Arthur was a favorite in the town. 
He was a pet of the girls, the leader of boy- 
ish sports, and the joy of a great circle of 
friends. 

Robert Graham was, in many ways, a 
counterpart to him. He was not a recluse. 
He was the son of the Baptist minister who 
preached in the Baptist chapel. They were 
a help to each other in study, and Robert 
was so true, so noble in character and so 
pure in life, that the parents of Arthur were 
glad to see the young men enjoying each 
others society and sharing each others con- 
fidence. They knew enough to believe in 
the friendship of youth. None are stronger 
or more enduring or more valuable. 

Robert Graham was a member of the 
church, influential in the Sabbath-school 


24 


Show Your Colors . 


and prayer-meeting, a good student, a great 
reader, and was regarded as destined for the 
pulpit. A revival was his delight, and 
laboring for the conversion of sinners his 
constant recreation. His whole soul burned 
to see his friends plucked as brands from 
the burning. John Becker was the son of a 
Presbyterian. His father was a merchant. 
He was handsome, rich, and free with his 
money. He was fond of young Graham, 
and delighted to help him out in the way of 
providing for him the money he might need 
to carry forward his religious work. Arthur 
Chester, at home, was restless. His parents 
saw it, and wondered about it. The father 
inquired about his studies, and learned that 
he had not neglected his duties as a student. 
He inquired as to the way in which he 
passed his evenings, and found that he was 
giving up to pleasure and excitement time, 
which had better be consecrated to obtain- 
ing the information which was needed to 
make him a proficient in literature. They 
found that he had contracted the habit of 


Show Your Colors. 


25 


smoking, and they were troubled about it. 
His language was changing, and was full of 
slang phrases, and so were his tastes. The 
home of Alice Hollister he had not entered. 
He was cutting loose from old associations 
and was forming new ones. The mother 
saw it and mourned because of it. When it 
came time for Arthur to retire, she went 
with him, and was startled to find that her 
boy was slipping away from her. He was 
no longer the confiding youth of the past. 
His mothers presence was irksome to him. 
He had no joy in the house. He mingled 
with fast young men. He shunned the 
society of the pure and the chaste, of the 
refined and the ennobling. She said to 
him in great tenderness : 

“ Arthur, I have come to have a few 
words with you. Confide in me, your old 
and, next to God, your best friend.” 

At the word God, Arthur started. He 
replied : 

“ Mother, I am going to perdition. There 
are forces in me which are driving me to the 


26 


Show Your Colors. 


bad. God is having a controversy with me. 
For days I have been utterly miserable. In 
my heart I believe you are wrong, and that 
father is wrong, and yet I dare not say it, 
and while fighting against conviction I have 
been ‘ drawing iniquity with cords of vanity 
and sin, as it were, with a cart-rope.’ ” 

“ What has so upset you, my boy ? ’’ 

“The Word of God. I am all wrong, and 
you are deceived.” 

“ What do you mean, my son ? ” 

“Jesus Christ is more than a man. He 
is God manifest in the flesh, and I am a lost 
sinner, and need His atoning blood to wash 
my sins away. I feel it. I cannot get the 
thought out of my mind. Unitarianism has 
much in it that is beautiful, but it furnishes 
my tempest-tossed soul with no rest or 
peace.” 

“ You surprise me, my son.” 

“ Doubtless. I have tried to drown out 
the feeling, but it is in me, and I have got 
to confess that Christ is the Saviour, and be- 
lieve in Him or be damned.” 


Show Your Colors. 


2 7 


You talk a strange language. ” 

True ; but I talk the language of the 
Word of God, which reads, ‘Whosoever 
believeth and is baptized shall be saved. 
Whosoever believeth not shall be damned.’ ” 
“ Yes • But believing in Jesus Christ as 
the model, as the example and pattern, as 
the brother who can help, is different from 
that.” 

‘ I thought so once ; but you know about 
Jim Slausson’s death, don’t you ? ” 

“ I heard, of course, of it, but know little 
about him.” 

“ He was the pride of the class. He was 
a Unitarian and attended service every Sab- 
bath. But he drank, played cards, went to 
theaters and operas, and did as he was a 
mind to generally. Well, he was with us 
upon a yacht out in the bay. He had been 
drinking, not very much, but sufficient to 
make him reckless. A squall came up, the 
wind struck us and nearly capsized us. Jim 
was standing on the deck, and was swept 
overboard. He was a good swimmer. He 


28 


Show Your Colors . 


came up. We tried to wear round to save 
him, when a cramp took him, and he cried ; 
‘Hurry, boys! I am dying,’ We tried to 
reach him. How he looked. His eyes 
were terrible. He was in terror. He cried : 

‘ Arthur, save me, or I am damned ! ’ and 
sank to rise no more. He had urged me to 
drink, but I had refused. Now, mother, 
where is Jim? He believed he was going 
to hell. Was he not right about it? The 
boys don’t know that I feel this. I try to 
hide my feelings, and came home to tell you 
the truth, and see if I could get help.” 

“ Do you believe that morality can save 
any one ? ” 

“ Well, yes. I have supposed that a 
good life, consecrated to ennobling work, 
will insure a reward.” 

! “ What do you think ? ” 

“ I believe I shall be lost if I am not saved 
by the blood of Christ.” 

“Why?” 

“ Because of what the Word of God says. 
I heard a sermon the other night from these 


Show Your Colors . 


29 


words : ‘ And as Moses lifted up the serpent 
in the wilderness, even so must the son of 
man be lifted up. As the minister de- 
scribed the bitten Israelites, he described 
me. I am in that condition. Sin has bitten 
me. It grows worse. I find inclination 
running through me at times like water in 
a mill-race. I am swept away by them. I 
am like a man in a boat on Niagara river. 
While I am sitting still I am nearing the 
final plunge. I know you did not think this, 
and so I have run into dissolution to stop 
my ears, but the cry is ever sounding in 
them : ‘God sent not his son to condemn 
the world, but that the world through him 
might be saved/ ‘ He that believeth on him 
is not condemned, but he that believeth not 
is condemned already, because he hath not 
believed in the name of the only begotten 
Son of God/ ‘ And this is the condemnation, 
that light is come into the world, and men 
loved darkness rather than light, because 
their deeds are evil/ Ever since I heard 
this I have been in trouble. My chum has 


30 


Show Your Colors. 


told me his experience. His mother is his 
idol, as my mother is mine. But his mother 
believes in the Lord Jesus Christ. Robert' 
was converted when a mere lad. He 
joined the Church when under twelve years 
of age. He believed Cod s Word, and that 
whoever believeth not is damned. He 
could not doubt it. In his father’s preach- 
ing, as in Mr. Knapp’s, hell is a dread reality. 
They do not send everybody to heaven, no 
matter what might be their practices, or 
habits, or lives. Restorationism and ra- 
tionalism had not permeated that Church 
and taken out the granite characteristics of 
faith. When he was convicted of sin his 
mother said, ‘This is my time.’ She could 
not sleep, nor eat, nor rest, as had been her 
custom. She watched him as one who must 
give an account for his soul.” 

“My son, are you rebuking me?” 

“No, mother, not rebuking you, but tell- 
ing my chum’s experience, that I may 
explain to you my trouble. I have no- 
where to go, excepting to Robert, and if 


3i 


Show Your Colors. * 

I take his faith I must turn my back upon 
yours.” 

The mother paused, and then said : 

, “ Y° u are nervous, my child ; try and 

sleep. We shall hear father in the morning. 
He is going to explain the phenomena of 
revivals.” 

The mother retired, but not to rest. 
Though the wife of an Unitarian minister, 
she had been brought up in an Evangelical 
home, and had been taught to believe in 
Christ as the Son of God, the Saviour of 
the world ; but having been in a cold state, 
and having formed associations which were 
regarded as advantageous, she had drifted 
on in comparative comfort up to the present 
time. Her boy’s appeal swept her heart as 
with the gust of a tornado. The lightnings 
of God’s wrath flamed about her — she was 
in a strait betwixt two. She must desert 
her husband or her child. She must betray 
Christ or her soul. The battle raged fierce 
for hours. 

The morning came. The Unitarian 


32 


Show Your Colors. 


chapel was a gem of art. It was built of 
brown stone, with white facings. It had an 
altar and a pulpit. Scripture passages ran 
all over it as vines run over bowers. The 
dim religious light, the soft peal of the organ, 
the well-trained choir, the strains of music 
suited to the soul’s quiet, were no better to 
her or to her boy than is a glass roof in the 
midst of falling hailstones. The sermon was 
a plea for reason to hold its throne. Much 
was said of the poise of judgment, but 
nothing of the needs of the soul. The 
mother and son were in trouble. No 
anxious soul in Bowdoin Square endured 
more agony than did these convicted souls 
in the Unitarian chapel. They were hedged 
round by difficulties. The sermon did them 
no good. The mother opened her Bible, 
and read i John i. 5-7, and then, placing 
her finger on the passage, handed it to 
Arthur. He read, “ This, then, is the mes- 
sage which we have heard of him and de- 
clare unto you, that God is light, and in him 
is no darkness at all. If we say that we have 


Show Your Colors. 


33 


fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, 
we lie, and do not the truth ; but if we 
walk in the light, as he is in the light, we 
have fellowship one with another, and the 
blood of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanseth us 
from all sin.” Arthur took out his pencil 
and underscored the we in the passage, “If 
we walk in the light,” and also the words, 
“ We have fellowship one with another .” The 
mother looked into his eyes. He saw that 
they were full of tears. He knew what 
those tears meant. His soul bounded out 
of its fetters. He clasped the promise. He 
believed in Christ. He was no longer in 
doubt. On the way home he urged his 
mother to go into Boston and hear Mr. 
Knapp. She could not promise. But Ar~ 
thur was in a new world. At the table his 
father referred to the sermon, and asked him 
what he thought of it. He replied with 
great diffidence, “ Have got beyond it.’> 

“ What do you mean ? ” 

“The tempest has been on me many days, 
and I have found shelter in Christ. The old 


34 


Show Your Colors. 


is past and the new has come. For many 
weeks I have been without Christ, without 
compass, and without guidance, because I 
have been without Christ. The fact is, I 
was in the condition of those sailors on the 
sea of Galilee, who saw Jesus drawing nigh 
unto the ship, and they were afraid. I was 
afraid. God was angry with me, and it 
seemed impossible for me to find peace. I 
never did find it until this morning. I heard 
Christ say unto me, ‘It is I, be not afraid/ I 
now see that the blood of Jesus Christ cleans- 
eth me from all sin — this I had heard, but 
I had not believed. Mr. Knapp, in a ser- 
mon, described Him as He came from heaven 
and earth to save me, and said, ‘Think of 
His credentials. Study His life. You might 
fear me, but you surely ought not to fear 
Christ. He loves you with an everlasting 
love, and with an all-conquering love. He 
describes your condition and His situation in 
John i. 1 1 — 13 ; “ He was in the world and 

the world was made by him, and the world 
knew him not. He came unto his own , and his 


Show Your Colors. 35 

own received him not.”’ He has come to 
me. Blind and wicked unbelief filled me 
with fear; but faith in His goodness, in 
His compassion, and in His willingness to 
save, has filled me with love ; for, I can 
truly say, as soon as I received Him this 
morning, he gave me the power to become 
His son. I can imagine the sailors, tired 
with their rowing, saying, ‘ Let us give him 
welcome.’ I, too, was tired. For days I 
have been tempest-tossed. I said this morn- 
ing, I can do the same. Y ou know what is 
added of them.” 

“No,” said the father, “I have not read 
the passage lately, but have often thought 
of the occurrence.” 

“Turn to John vi. 21 , and you will find 
these words,” placing his finger on the pas- 
sage and handing it to his father. 

He took it and read these words, 
“ Then they willingly received him intothe 
ship, and immediately the ship was at the 
land whither they went,” which means, re- 
ceive Jesus into the soul and every fear is 


36 


Show Your Colors. 


laid aside. You have no further anxiety. 
It matters not whether the voyage be long 
or short, the fear is gone, and the pas- 
sage is a delight. 

The fathers face wore a troubled look, 
and he turned to his wife and said, “Mrs/ 
Chester, what think you of the fanaticism 
of this youth ? Is he mad or crazy ? ” 

“ No, not mad nor crazy, but wrought 
upon by the power of God, and, I feel, 
has passed the rocks and quicksands and 
is in the open sea of life.” 

The words were bravely, but, perhaps, 
not prudently said. Mr. Chester was a 
calm and judicious man, yet, when aroused, 
was terrible in his wrath and condemna- 
tion. 

He arose, saying, “ If my wife and child 
have deserted me and lost their senses, 
perhaps I had better withdraw.” 

He left the table and went to his study. 
The mother had before her eyes the mis- 
take made by the father of William Ellery 
Channing, when he was in a like critical 


Show Your Colors. 


37 


condition. He had been to hear a revi- 
valist preach. The peril threatening a lost 
soul had engaged their thought. William 
was in terror. He took his seat beside 
his father in the chaise. His father whis- 
tled. Young Channing said: “This ser- 
mon cannot be true, or my father could 
not rest while my soul was in peril.” He 
gave up the search for a hope in Christ, 
and drifted hopelessly on ever after. The 
mother felt that the religion of Christ was 
necessary to keep him from the evil to 
come, and so she resolved, if she could 
not help him, she would not hinder him, 
and in this frame of mind he went back 
to college. 


38 


Show Your Colors . 


CHAPTER III. 

THE STRUGGLE BEGUN, NOT ENDED. 

On the train Arthur met some of his 
companions. They came to- him in their 
wild way and invited him to the smoking 
car. He refused a compliance with the 
request. 

“What is the matter?” 

“ Have got a new companion.” 

“ Who ? ” 

“Jesus Christ.” 

“ Nonsense ! ” 

“ No, not nonsense, but the best of 
sense.” 

“You converted?” 

“Hope so.” 

“ How ? ” 

“ Took God at His word. Received 
Jesus Christ into my heart. Made Him 
ruler, and obtained power to become the 
son of God, and was born, not of blood, nor 
of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of 


Show Your Colors . 


39 


man, but of God.” This he spoke quietly, 
but so solemnly, so earnestly, with such deep 
emotion, that they were awed by it, and a 
man sitting in front turned and said : 

“Bravely spoken, my friend. Come to- 
j night and tell your story in Bowdoin 
Square. It will do good.” 

“ Thank you,” said Arthur, “ I must first 
tell it in Harvard College, where I am bet- 
ter known. Pray for me, that I may 
* Show my Colors ’ where I live.” 

Among the youth who accosted him was 
James Strong, who had professed religion, 
but had never lived Christ. From the day 
of his espousal he had been the servant of 
himself, and not of his Master. He had 
smoked, though, for the sake of others, he 
had given a pledge to break with the habit. 
His will was not broken. There was no 
obedience in him. When he came to col- 
lege, though a professed Christian, he stayed 
away from prayer-meetings, and, ever and 
anon, from the sanctuary. His room was 
full of riotous laughter and blue with tobacco 


Show Your Colors . 


40 

smoke. Rumor had it that bottles of ale 
were freely drank there. He was talented ; 
he loved literature and the society of those 
who were high up in science and art ; he 
was fine-looking, had great powers, but 
there was no rock in his religion. His 
Bible was never in sight, and novels always 
were. He turned his back on Arthur, and 
was not in sympathy with the work which 
had been wrought in his friend, though he 
had the reputation of being a Christian, and 
was said to have the ministry in view. 

It was a critical moment in Arthur’s life. 
To be left alone because of fidelity to 
Christ, is what many another has had to 
endure who has been true to principle, but 
it is hard to bear. Strong was the favorite 
of the club. He was the object of a great 
deal of attention from the young men who 
had money and but little character, but he 
was a broken reed to lean on. 

Arthur opened his Testament and read 
the story of Christ in Gethsemane ; of 
Christs treading the wine-press alone, and 


• Show Your Colors. 


4i 


of the people that were not with Him. They 
reached the station before he thought of it. 
They entered the horse-car together. He 
was still alone. The experience did him 
good. He felt two things that he could 
understand — Christ’s trial and also His love. 
He remembered that Christ on Calvary was 
alone, and even when the crowd jeered at 
Him He had grace to cry, “ Father, forgive 
them, they know not what they do!” It 
flashed into Arthur’s mind that God could 
take care of him and provide him with 
friends. He turned his thoughts upward in 
prayer, when Strong came and sat beside 
him, saying : 

“ Are they having meetings in W ? ” 

“ No, I went there to get rid of these, 
but, while there, found ‘ the pearl of great 
price.’ ” 

Young Strong looked at him and was 
troubled. He had to confess his coldness 
and wanderings from God, and turn to 
Christ and live, or he must rebuke Arthur. 
Just then his companions shouted : 


42 


Show Your Colors . 


“ Going to have a prayer-meeting, 
Strong ? ” 

Out came his “ No,” and he walked apart 
from Christ, and with those who had not 
professed Christ, but despised the traitor, 
and were not slow to say so. 

At this Arthur thanked them, and said : 

“ I shaM be glad to see you, and may 
hope to influence you for good.” 

One replied, “ Thank you, Arthur,” but 
James, turning, said : 

“ It will wear out. In due time his 
religion will be made an aid to enjoy life, 
not a reason for rejecting its pleasures.” 

Arthur made no reply, but Jim Jones 
said : 

“ Don’t know about that. My mother 
has got Arthur’s kind. It will keep.” 

It is wonderful how swiftly the story ran. 
Robert Graham saw it written in Arthur’s 
face. They no sooner clasped hands than 
Arthur expressed his thanks for his forbear- 
ance and kindness, and told his story. 
Their room was soon full. The revival was 


Show Your Colors. 


43 


spreading. Other churches were opened. 
The Faculty were affected by it. The 
chaplain was, seemingly, under the spell. 
The Lord was at work with him ; his ser- 
mons showed it. In that college, whose 
foundations were laid by Baptists’ prayers 
and money — where hundreds of evangelical 
students had been trained— where men of 
prominence had been turned to Christ— it 
seemed as though the influence of those old 
prayers and that old faith was alive, and 
was exerting its spell. The Spirit of God 
moved from room to room, and from heart 
to heart. The prayer-meeting was crowded. 
A feeling of solemnity was witnessed in the 
class-room as in the chapel, in the dormi- 
tory and on the campus. That night 
Arthur told his story, and was welcomed 
with songs and rejoicing. There is a king- 
dom of God, and a kingdom not of God, ?n 
this world. God’s children love each other, 
and are hated by His enemies. This 
Arthur learned, not in an exceptional 
way. 


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Show Your Colors . 


He learned it as others have learned it. 
It costs to stand by Christ. It is as difficult 
to do this in boyhood as in manhood ; there 
is no difference. Satan runs this world as 
long and as far as he can. God can hinder 
him. God can break him. God can re- 
strain him, as He did when Job was in the 
midst of difficulty. God can take care of 
his own, as He did of the wise men in the 
furnace, and of Daniel in the lions’ den. 

Arthur learned that with his change of 
heart came fresh responsibilities. He did 
not wish to hide his light under a bushel, 
nor could he have done so. 

WITH NEW RESPONSIBILITIES CAME NEW 
TRIALS. 

Many who had known him in college 
reviled him. But this was not all. There 
was a home where he had almost mocked 
Christ, where he must now confess him. To 
come back to college was very difficult. 
The hardest task remained. He must go 
to Dr. Hollister and confess Christ. If there 


45 


Show Your Colors. 

was a man he loved and a man of whom he 
stood in fear, it was the eminent physician, 
whose wit was as keen as his lancet, and 
whose perceptions endowed him with almost 
omniscient power. He could look through 
a man. He knew man, and might almost 
be said to know what was in him. He was 
what the world would call a freethinker. 
He was short, thin, homely in face, but so 
talented, such a fine conversationalist, so 
devoted to his children, so proud of Ar- 
thur s great, manly form, broad brow, bright 
eye, and giant frame, as he liked to calf it, 
that Arthur almost worshiped him, and was 
almost afraid of him. The Doctor was small 
in stature, as we have said, and was perfectly 
wild in regard to size. He desired to be 
tall. He wore high heels on his boots. He 
always referred to his size as though it wor- 
ried him. 

A friend said to Arthur, “Have you 
heard that the Doctor is taking on fearfully 
about you. I saw him to-day, and he said, 
‘They tell me Arthur is converted! I would 


46 


Show Your Colors . 


like to see him. I thought there was some- 
thing in him. He has size and he has a 
good head — none of your peanut heads. 
His muscle is developed ; he is a capital 
stroke, and can swing a ball club with the 
might of a giant. His chest and arm and 
leg are worth looking at. I never dreamed 
that he would become a milksop and 
spooney, and go crying round, digging his 
fingers into his eyes and bellowing like a 
bull of Bashan about his sins. I supposed 
he would stand up and fight like a man.’ n 

Arthur is not digging his fingers into his 
eyes. He has turned round. He is more 
manly, more temperate, more chaste in 
thought and in speech, more devoted to all 
that is good, more utterly against all that is 
mean and small. 

“Well, then, why don’t he come and see 
me?” 

Just then Alice passed, and the Doctor 
called to her. 

“Alice !” 

“What, father?” 


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Show Your Colors . 

“ Have you heard of Arthurs conver- 
sion?” 

“Yes, sir.” 

“ Has he been to see you ?” 

“ No, sir.” 

“Why, is he afraid?” 

“No,, sir, not afraid. I have a note 
from him. He is coming to see us ; but 
first, he wanted to make a confession to 
me.” 

“ A confession to you! What has he to 
confess to you ? ” 

“ Here is his letter; read it.” 

The Doctor took it and read : 

“Dear Alice — You remember my past 
life has been in every way bad, and, in one 
way, utterly unworthy of myself. You 
know I almost worship your father, and I 
dare not attempt to resist him or to refute 
him, and in those brilliant moods of his when 
he holds us all in thrall, I have assented to 
positions that I did not believe tenable ; and 
more than all, and worse than all, when I 
knew you was under conviction of sin, I 


48 


Show Your Colors . 


have been such a coward that I dared not 
tell you that I was in the same condition. 
I was, I have been in the gall of bitterness 
# and in the bonds of iniquity. I have done 
despite to the spirit of grace. I ought to 
have spoken out, especially when your father 
referred all the facts to the domain of mes- 
meric influences. I was a coward not to 
refute him from my own experience, and so 
help you. I beg your pardon. It is my in- 
tention to go to your house on the morrow. 
My best respects to your parents, and be- 
lieve me, 

“Truly yours, 

“Arthur Chester.” 

“A manly letter; but, Alice, are you 
going crazy? Is this meeting permeating 
the town like the atmosphere ? Has a vial 
been poured into the air ? I meet it in the 
street, at the bedside of the sick, everywhere, 
and now you have it. It is like the influ- 
enza — every one is getting it, and I begin to 
snuff, myself,” said he, as he wiped his 
face. 


Show Your Colors . 


49 


CHAPTER IY. 

ALICE HOLLISTER’S HOME. 

Alice Hollister was, in many ways, a 
counterpart of Arthur. In imagination, in 
will, in deep and pungent conviction, in dis- 
regard of appearance, in a refusal to con- 
form to the behests of fashion, in declining 
to dress in a certain way because some one 
else did, in living in a world of intelligence 
rather than in a world of frivolity, she 
was adapted to meet his want and sup- 
plement him in work, in aspiration, and 
endeavor. 

Nina was of a more spiritual organism ; 
she lived for love. She loved to sit on the 
lap, to comb her father’s hair, to twine her 
arms about his neck, to keep him company, 
to sit by his side, when he wrote to hold his 
pen, to use the blotter, and sometimes to 
bother him by using it at the wrong time. 
She was imitative. She could mimic the 
various birds in song, and had musical pow- 
4 


5o 


Show Your Colors . 


ers of a high order. In short, she could 
sing like a nightingale and love like an 
angel. Of theology she knew nothing and 
thought less. She lived in a world of 
plenty. Pictures delighted her eye, music 
regaled her ear, love warmed her heart. 
To look at her was to feel that she was 
beautiful in heart as in form. Her golden 
hair, tossing in waves back from her fore- 
head, and falling over her great, broad, full, 
beautiful shoulders, her blue eyes looking 
through long lashes that added to their 
bewitching power, made her eloquent in 
expression. She would meet Arthur at the 
door, welcome him with a laugh, and never 
seemed to dream that any one could think 
of her, or would have thought of stopping 
for her a moment to learn her opinion on 
any question, if opinion she might chance to 
have. 

But Alice was different. Her forehead 
was wide and high. Her hair was jet black, 
and so were her eyes, and the lashes of the 
same hue •: 


Show Your Colors. 


5i 


Of downcast lengths, in whose silk shadows lies 
I Deepest attraction, for when to the view 

Forth from its raven fringe the full glance flies, 

Ne’er with such force the simplest arrow flew.” 

Into that glance she put her character and 
her strength. Every word and look de- 
noted decision. You could not trifle with 
her nor in her presence. She played the 
piano and harp with the exactness of a mas- 
ter. She read with the delicacy, the tone, 
the emphasis, and the distinctness of an elocu- 
tionist. Perfection characterized her mental 
habits. She could not tolerate trifling. You 
could not sport with her nor in her presence. 
She was born with a purpose. She lived it. 
She was a regular attendant upon the 
Unitarian Church. She delighted in the 
literary qualifications of the preacher, and in 
many of his best utterances found food for 
thought. But she was cold. She resembled 
a beautiful house, furnished, but unwarmed 
and uninhabited. She had no sympathy with 
her fathers infidelity or with her mothers 
trifling. For fashionable life and its amuse- 
ments she felt simply contempt. In the 


52 


Show Your Colors. 


midst of the whirl of gay excitements there 
was running through her heart a cry for 
something higher and better. She needed 
an inhabitant for her soul. This she longed 
for more than all else. Her home deserves 
to be described. It was and is the pride of 
the town, and is to-day the center of wide 
observation. Without referring to the road 
on which it was built, we will describe the 
grounds and house. You approach it from 
the south. The house fronts the road on the 
east, and has a look over a perfect lawn to a 
road on the north, beyond which is an estate 
of equal pretensions, and perhaps of more 
intrinsic value. Boston is noted for its 
environs, and every house is beautified and 
kept as if for the eye of strangers, but in 
fact for the gratification of a love for the 
beautiful which seems innate in the cul- 
tivated circles of Boston society. As you 
enter the house, the great hall, done in black 
walnut, with stag-horns, busts, and pictures 
on every side, and at the farther end a 
stairway leading to the second story, which 


Show Your Colors. 


53 


rises six steps, and then, from the landing- 
place, above which is a magnificent land- 
scape of an Alpine valley, you pass on either 
side to a narrower walk, which lines the 
great hall, resembling a European picture- 
gallery, not only in design, but in the won- 
ders of art which attract the attention and 
bewilder the senses. Pass up the stairs, turn 
to the right and push on and you will enter 
the gallery of art. All that wealth could 
purchase, and a cultivated taste could crowd 
into a room of its dimensions, was found 
within. The ceiling was elaborately fres- 
coed, and represented Union, Force, and 
Abundance. The drapery of the gallery 
created a rich glow for the pictures. It was 
the fancy of Dr. Hollister to honor Ameri- 
can artists as well as men who had earned 
a world- wide fame in foreign lands. Noth- 
ing is more dreary than a catalogue of pic- 
tures. While the list may be omitted, there 
are two or three pictures that deserve men- 
tion. One was Mount Sinai, or Tintoret’s pic- 
ture of the Golden Calf. Below, on the plain, 


5 4 


Show Your Colors . 


were the people, in a worshipful attitude. 
The faces denoted the absence of the spirit- 
ual and the reign of the brutal. Above was 
Mount Sinai, rising in awful grandeur, and 
through a rift in the cloud Moses was seen 
receiving the tables of the Law in the pres- 
ence of Infinite Majesty. The face of Moses 
glowed in the light of God. This was the 
center piece. Beside them were Alpine 
mountains, the dim aisles of American for- 
ests, European cathedrals standing beside 
American farm-pictures of meadow land, cat- 
tle in the stream, and horses browsing in the 
fields. Above was the observatory, in which 
were chairs and tables, and some books of 
foreign travel, where Alice, in seclusion, 
could read without being seen from without, 
or liable to intrusion from within. At the 
left of the main entrance to the house is the 
library, in the rear of which is the dining- 
room, and at the right is the parlor, stored with 
the costliest products of art and with furni- 
ture which, without being gorgeous, impress- 
es the beholder with its richness, and with 


Show Your Colors. 


55 


the excellent and delicate taste of its pro- 
prietor. 

In the rear of the house was a garden, 
inclosed by high brick walls, which broke 
the force of the wind, and afforded the back- 
ground of summer-houses, in which were 
peach-trees and pear-trees, trained against 
the supports, vines of choice kinds and vari- 
eties, while opposite the entrance, and in the 
center of the garden, was a fountain, sur- 
rounded by beautiful statues, in imitation of 
the great fountain of Versailles. Beyond it 
was the green-house, filled with foreign 
plants, which made it the glory of the region 
far and near. To describe it is unneces- 
sary. We shall often walk its paths and 
look out from its tower, and feast upon the 
beauties of sea and land, of city and country, 
spread out to the view. Such a house 
exerts its influence in a community. It is, 
to a young man like Arthur, reared amidst 
books and pictures which come within the 
reach of a clergymans purse, a place grander 
than the palace of the Luxembourg, and the 


56 


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gallery seemed larger and richer than those 
which are the glory of the Louvre. To be 
banished from such a house does not require 
an edict or a letter. It only needs that Dr. 
Hollister shall take out of the “ How ore 
you, Arthur ?” the peculiar tone which made 
it give him an enthusiastic welcome. His 
politeness will never go away, because that 
is part of the man. His heartiness, which 
changes politeness from being characterized 
by the frosty coldness of the Northern blast 
into the summer and spice-laden breath of 
the tropics, was what Arthur was afraid he 
was to lose. The boy was alone with God. 
He looked on the right hand and the left, 
and there was none to help. Jesus must 
arise for him and prepare the way before 
him, or all was gone. As he was thinking 
over his peril, a note was handed him in his 
mother’s handwriting. He opened it and 
read this and nothing more : “ Romans xvi. 
20; xix. 22. Isaiah xii.” 

The form of the letter startled him. Was 
he to be rebuked or comforted ? He 


Show Your Colors. 


57 


opened to the portions of Scripture and read 
them, as his eyes rained tears: “And the 
God of peace shall bruise Satan under your 
feet shortly.” “ The grace of our Lord 
Jesus Christ be with you.” “Hast thou 
faith? have it to thyself, before God.” Be- 
lieve that God cares for you and loves you ; 
this must be the meaning. He turns to 
Isaiah and reads: “And in that day, O 
Lord, I will praise thee. . . . Behold, God 
is my salvation ; I will trust and not be 
afraid.” He finished the chapter. He 
starts. 

The way is, indeed, a dreary one. His 
feet drag along the earth. The gate is 
reached. He passes it. He feels that the 
turning-point has come back. He comes 
back. He opens it. He walks up the 
path. The chariot-wheels of his resolution 
grind fearfully. He hopes the doctor will 
not be home, and that he can see Alice, and 
so strengthen his resolution. He rings the 
bell. To his amazement and chagrin the 
doctor opens the door. He grasps his 


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hand. The spicy breath of the South comes 
to him and comforts him. At once he asks 
Arthur about the death of his companion. 
The story is told as well as may be. Arthur 
speaks of the drinking - of his companion 
despite their protestations ; of its effect upon 
him ; then of his struggle in the water ; and, 
at last, of the wail of the lost soul. By this 
time his tongue is loosed. He pours out 
the truth, burning like fire in his heart. He 
has his say, and stops. The doctor speaks, 
exclaiming : 

“ It was terrible, Arthur. No wonder you 
weep. It is manly thus to do/’ 

“Ah, but, doctor, you do not understand 
me. I wish to see Mrs. Hollister and 
Alice.” 

They came in — one dressed for an even- 
ing party, and the other with her hair 
brushed aside, as she hurried away from her 
books to meet her friend. They sat down, 
and then Arthur began and told his story. 
He spoke of his agony because of his sin. 

“Nonsense!” cried the doctor. 


Show Your Colors. 


5 9 


“Not nonsense,” said Arthur, “but a 
terrible reality; and the worst of all is, I 
have been a cheat and a fraud in this 
house. I have betrayed Christ in order 
that I might enjoy your commendation. 
I have told untruths. I have professed to 
hate what, in fact, I loved, and to love 
what, in fact, I utterly loathe ; and now, 
doctor, not to keep you longer, I come to 
confess that I believe in the religion of 
the New Testament. I feel that I am lost 
and undone without an interest in the 
blood of Christ, and I cannot get on 
without saying so.” 

It was a moment of quiet. 

As when a storm sweeps down upon the 
land there is a momentary lull before the 
tempest bursts in fury, so here there was a 
moment of anxiety. The doctor played 
with his watch-chain nervously. His eye 
twitched and almost closed. His lip trem- 
bled as he rose and said, “Arthur, you 
are a fool. You have got frightened. 
You have no pluck. This is only a scare. 


6o Show Your Colors . 

You have not the nerve I thought you 
had.” 

Arthur replied bravely, “ I am not fright- 
ened, most noble friend, I am wise ; I am 
sane ; nor have I been beside myself. Now, 
let me add a word and I will go. I believe 
in Jesus Christ as the only sufficient atone- 
ment of sin, and intend to serve him if it 
costs me my life.” 

He rose up, took his hat, thanked them 
for their kindness, bade all good night, and 
started for the door. 

“ D °n’t go, Arthur; let us talk,” said Dr. 
Hollister. 

Alice was as pale as a ghost. 

The mother cried, « My pleasure for the 
evening is ruined by that foolish boy.” 

Alice looked her consent to have Arthur 
go, and stepped to her father’s side. That 
picture Arthur never lost. Without a word 
he opened the door and passed out into the 
night. 

No sooner had the door closed than the 
doctor, putting his arm about Alice, said : 


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61 


The boy has stuff in him. He is a fool on 
the subject of religion, but I like him. I 
would not give a cent for a boy that did not 
go something. Arthur will get on. Bless 
me, he preaches like Paul, already. The 
coming of Paul before Agrippa was not bet- 
ter done/’ 

You talk, father, as though religion was 
a kind of a play. Don’t you believe in it 
for anybody ? ” 

The father’s lips worked. His hand was 
in the air. He seemed haunted by a spirit. 
He looked about him as if dazed. Then, 
with an impatient gesture, he exclaimed : 

“ Once I did. I might have had it, but I lost 
it. I gave up. Once I stood where Arthur 
stands.” 

The wife cried, “ Doctor, stop ; don’t un- 
cover the past ! ” 

“ It may help Alice.” 

“ It will hurt me,” shouted the mother. 

The husband looked at her with a feeling 
of pity. He remembered when he married 
for money, for position, for fame. He 


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obtained his price. He sold out his hope in 
Christ for position, for wealth, for an oppor- 
tunity to go abroad. Arthur’s upheaval of 
heart-agony had stirred him. He looked at 
his daughter with parental tenderness, and 
said to all, “ Leave me alone.” 

The mother and child went forth. The 
man was alone. He had books, pictures, 
fame, wealth, but was without God. He was 
in agony. He found that the past could not 
be buried. It would come up and haunt, 
with noiseless footstep, the library where he 
communed with the great of by-gone ages, 
and from which he sent forth his own weird 
fancies which peopled the compartments of 
his busy brain. The girl he loved was wor- 
thy of him. She had genius, and, more 
than all, she had a heart — the tendrils of 
whose love, twining about him, made him 
strong. She was his inspiration for years. 
But when he entered the great medical 
school in Philadelphia, his talents gave him 
the entree to the best circles of society, and 
he was introduced to his present wife, who 


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6 3 

had beauty, wealth, and position ; but her 
brain was uncultivated, though she had grad- 
uated from orie of the most popular female 
seminaries. The conflict was long and ter- 
rible. He saw before him a home with a 
loving woman to keep it, or a home with 
wealth to keep it. There was priceless 
wealth in one girl ; there was a large 
amount of money with the other. Friends 
urged him to take the woman endowed with 
wealth and position. He finally yielded, 
and proved false to his own higher nature 
and to his happiness. He was brave, if not 
constant. He called on Alice and told her 
the simple truth, and gave his hand to the 
one whom, in his heart, he did not love. 
The wedding was all that money could make 
it. The trip abroad was as full of delight 
and pleasure as money could make it, 
though in the heart was an aching void noth- 
ing but Alice could fill. He thought of her 
as he wandered amid the picture-galleries of 
Europe, and as he gazed upon the magnifi- 
cent scenery of Switzerland. Then he felt 


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the value of what he had given up. Home 
is where the heart is. Mrs. Hollister tried 
to share these pleasures ; but, brought up in 
a purposeless way, and made to think that 
the business of life consisted in getting the 
proper shade of silk and gloves to match, 
she soon tired of travel, and longed to get 
back to Paris. There, wandering through 
the shops and stores, in the galleries and 
parks of this far-famed capital, she rested, 
while her husband did Europe largely alone. 
His letters from Europe were addressed to 
his former friend, who became the sharer of 
his pleasures, and were afterwards published. 
They are a story of a mateless man trying 
to see for another that which another might 
have shared. There is in them perfect de- 
scriptions of men, of views, of the pleasures 
within reach of the voyager, but through 
them there ran the story of a love that dare 
not confess itself, and must be held in by bit 
and rein. 

Alice married Mr. Chester — the minister 
of the parish — a man whom she could re- 


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65 


spect. Her love was held in check for the 
gift of God to her, in the person of her boy. 
Him she named after Dr. Hollister, and the 
girl born to Dr. Hollister was named Alice, 
after the woman he had loved. The strange 
fact remains. Arthur Chester was in many 
ways like Dr. Hollister, and Alice Hollister 
was in many things like Mrs. Chester. How 
this fact can be accounted for need not be 
given. 


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CHAPTER V. 

ARTHUR’S MOTHER. 

Arthur walked a new world. The stars 
above him sang glory to God ' as he came 
out. The winds whispered commendation. 
The Spirit of God caused him to rejoice in 
his adoption. He felt that he was in fellow- 
ship with the Father, and was in sympathy 
with Christ. A new love took possession of 
his heart. He wished to see the doctor and 
family rejoicing in this new-born joy. He 
knew not how to reach them. He went 
home, and in the presence of father and 
mother told the story through. Then Ar- 
thur, for the first time, found out how full of 
peril was the path on which he had entered. 
His father, though a minister, though he 
often took the name of Christ upon his lips, 
knew nothing about this crucifixion of self 
or the utter abandonment of all for Him. 
He could not and did not glory in Christ 
crucified, the sinners hope and joy ; but in 


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67 

the man Christ Jesus, who was born in 
Bethlehem, grew up in Nazareth— the son 
of a carpenter, and who, in his opinion, had 
no conception of who he was to be, or of 
the position he was to hold among men. 
He was accustomed to praise his manhood. 
The life of Jesus he delighted to hold up to 
admiration. The death of Christ was to 
him a mystery and a stumbling-block. He 
did not wish to do Christ injustice. The 
Christ he knew, he preached. The Christ 
that saved Arthur was to him a wayfaring 
man and a stranger. This Arthur felt. The 
mist of darkness hemmed in his father, as 
the mist at. times envelops and holds in 
thrall the mightiest ship. Arthur knew Christ 
and gladly proclaimed Him. His father 
knew Him not, and could not bear to hear 
his son talk in his excited and intemperate 
way. 

Arthur s mother has been described in 
the person of Alice. Her face, of course, 
showed age and the furrows of care ; her 
hair was sprinkled with gray, and her 


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eye denoted maturity of thought, and an 
experience full of interest. She was reti- 
cent before strangers ; but in the midst 
of friends she was eloquence personified. 
Between her and her husband there was 
the most profound respect. She was proud 
of his talents, of the purity of his inten- 
tions, and of the nobility of his life. She 
was frank to tell him that she respected him, 
but was without those emotions of love which 
she had felt for another. He was content 
with this, and they were married, and never 
had cause to regret it. Arthur was born to 
her in a year, and she was content. The 
letter told Dr. Hollister of her joy, and of his 
name. In a few months the compliment was 
returned and Alice became a mutual joy. 
Thoughtful, tender, earnest, prudent, wise, 
and far-seeing, she was fitted to guide her son 
through the difficulties which environed him, 
without offending her husband, and without 
doing injury to her child. She was to Ar- 
thur a confidant, counselor, and companion. 
The father admired his boy’s pluck and en- 


Show Your Colors. 


69 

thusiasm, the mother forgot much that the 
world gloried in, while she clung to his manly 
characteristics, and reveled in his love, and 
rejoiced in his confidence. She was full of 
sympathy. She fed on it. A visit that did 
not awaken it failed to strike the responsive 
chord in her breast. Touch this and her 
whole nature was waked up. Never was she 
more necessary to Arthur than at this mo- 
ment. He had just passed through a criti- 
cal period. He had confessed Christ. Moses, 
who had refused to be called the son of 
Pharaohs daughter, but had chosen to suf- 
fer affliction with the people of God, rather 
than to enjoy the pleasures of the palace 
and the society of nobles and princes, had 
not rejected more or turned his back upon 
that which his heart coveted, more than had 
Arthur, who had confessed Christ in the 
hearing of Dr. Hollister, and walked out 
alone. The stars showered benedictions 
upon him. 

Arthur Chester had entered into new 
experiences. He could understand, as never 


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before, the words which sounded out from 
the heavens to Christ, saying : “ This is my 
beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” 
Like Paul, he felt that he could lead all men 
to Christ. Into his home he came with this 
feeling. His father’s coldness chilled him, 
and his infidelity towards Christ made the 
night air of Gethsemane come upon him. 
He was not without a watcher or a helper. 
As Jonathan went into the wood and 
strengthened David’s hand in God, so his 
mother followed Arthur to his room and 
gave him cheer. She found him on his knees 
beside his bed, praying, not for himself, but 
for his father. He saw the peril and doom 
threatening him. He believed that if he 
died, trusting to his morality or good works, 
he would be lost, and that there was “ no 
other name given under heaven, or among 
men, whereby he could be saved, except by 
the name of Jesus Christ,” of Nazareth, 
whom his father was crucifying, and whom 
the Bible holds up as the way, the truth, and 
the life. In these days of pleasuring, when 


Show Your Colors. 7 1 

religion furnishes a door to respectability, to 
good society, to the fellowship of congenial 
companionship, men think little of such trav- 
ail of soul. They would expect Arthur to 
be thinking of himself rather than of his 
father, of his ill-treatment, rather than of the 
contumely heaped on his Lord. But Ar- 
thur was bound up in the bundle with Christ. 
The world was crucified to him. His father 
was standing with the enemies of right and 
truth, because he hated his Lord. His love 
for Christ separated him from all who hated 
Christ, and bound him to those who loved 
him. In this spirit he prayed. Silently his 
mother crept to his side and listened to his 
words. . “ O Christ ; ” said he, in childlike 
simplicity, “ I am sorry for you. I think of 
Thy love for my father, and of the way he 
rejects it. Forgive him, he knows Thee not. 
He comprehends Thee not. O Holy Spirit, 
Thou who didst enlighten my dark under- 
standing, reveal Thyself to him. Let him 
see his need of Thy love and help. Open 
his eyes, that he may behold himself before 


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it is too late. Strengthen my mother. 
Bless her for her message to me. Give her 
wisdom. Give her strength to bear her 
burdens and trials and to stand for Thee.” 
As he was speaking she sobbed out. He 
stopped, and saw her beside him, and said : 
“ Pray, mother.” 

She called on God. It was a prayer all- 
embracing, all-enfolding, and faith-support- 
ing. She seemed to have a revelation of 
what awaited her son. She led him on, not 
only out of his father’s house, but out of his 
regard, and out of the regard of the com- 
munity, up into the darkness and gloom of 
Calvary. She saw herself crucified to those 
whom she loved. She saw her boy left 
penniless, homeless, and friendless. She 
then seemed to climb up to the headlands 
of faith. The story of Samuel came to her, 
and she cried to Samuel’s God to take care 
of her boy. The story of David came to 
her, and she seemed to see her husband 
possessed of the evil spirit that drove Saul 
to extremities, and she called on David’s 


Show Your Colors . 73 

God to protect her boy. While thus 
engaged, a knock was heard at the door. 
The. mother and son heard it and arose. 
Their faces were red with weeping. They 
opened the door, and beheld, with surprise, 
Alice ^ Hollister. She comprehended the 
situation in a moment, and said : 

“ You were at prayer.” 

“ Yes.” 

Please continue, and let me join you.” 

“ For what do you wish to pray ? ” 

“ For myself ; I am lost and undone, and 
can get no help. I want a Saviour.” 

“ Are you willing to pay the price?” 
asked Arthur. 

“ What price ? ” 

“ Are you ready to confess Christ at any 
cost ? ” 

“ Yes. I have wanted Christ a long 
time. No one has spoken to me, only to 
ridicule me.” 

Arthur explained how all must be given 
up— place, fortune, and life itself. Alice 
was ready. She needed guidance. Arthur 


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explained Christ’s willingness to save all 
who would come to Him. All bowed in 
prayer, and Alice, with the simplicity of a 
child, cried : “ God be merciful to me a sin- 
ner,” plead the promises, and found relief. 
It was a moment of exquisite joy. He real- 
ized what itVas to have his crown bestud- 
ded with a star. 

Alice’s errand was then explained. She 
came to invite the family to dinner on 
Saturday evening. Arthur said : 

“ Will you please invite Robert Gra- 
ham ? ” 

And she replied, with pleasure, “ I will 
empower you to do it.” 

After experiencing such pleasure as no 
language can describe, they went home. It 
was a night that was full of beauty. The 
love of Christ occupied their thoughts. 
Clouds, dark and threatening, were gather- 
ing over both of them, but that night Eden 
was regained, and the Lord God walked 
with them in Paradise. They had reached 
the gate. They were to part, and, as 


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75 

Arthur was bidding his friend good-bye, he 
said : 

“ Alice, terrible trials await you. I had 
mine, and gained the mastery over them 
when I passed up yonder steps, and con- 
fronted your father, and told you of my 
purpose to serve God. Yours will come 
in due time. Good-night, and may the 
form of the Fourth keep near you and help 
you.” 


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CHAPTER VI. 

COLLEGE LIFE— ITS OPPORTUNITIES AND 
TEMPTATIONS. 

Of the life lived in college but little is 
really known. There are opportunities of 
acquirement, of concentration of mental 
strength, of consecration of purpose, of 
development of the powers of body, mind, 
and soul, which can nowhere else be found. 
There is the basis of the college curriculum. 
The studies named in the catalogue stand 
rather as doors opening into illimitable fields 
of investigation and of acquirement, than as 
exhaustive treatises on given subjects. Does 
the student study Latin ? He reads a few 
books, or a portion of the writings of Cicero, 
Livy, Tacitus, Horace, and others, and begins 
to tread upon the shore of the sea of Latin 
literature. Here and there is a student who 
" will traverse that sea. He becomes familiar 
with the idioms of the language — not only 
that he may master its difficulties, but that 


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77 


he may revel in its beauties. Another stu- 
dent will read the lesson assigned by the 
help of a “pony,” which is a translation of 
the book, or by the aid of a friend. Of the 
genius of the language he knows nothing, 
and cares less. His ambition is to go through 
college and have a good time. Among this 
class are very often found the sons of wealthy 
men. They spend immense sums of money, 
and give up to dissipation, strength and 
time which, if used to master the diffi- 
culties of their studies, would give them fine 
positions. The students who acquire the 
refutation of being used up by study, either 
in colleges or seminaries, are seldom the best 
students. They are generally the intem- 
perate and the improvident. They are the 
abusers of themselves and of their great op- 
portunities. They are triflers. They lack 
honesty and integrity. They squander time 
which is . not their own, and waste talents 
and energies which are loaned to them for a 
high and holy purpose. 

Robert Graham had been noted for his 


Show Your Colors. 


7 8 

high rank in class, and for his excellent de- 
meanor. Now that Arthur had drank from 
the same spring of love, and had been 
washed and made clean in the same foun- 
tain, he joined him in the higher sphere of 
endeavor, as he had attempted to keep pace 
with him in the studies of the class. Re- 
ligion was a help rather than a hindrance. 
He saw that there were religious frauds. He 
knew young men who were trying to make 
piety pass for acquirement. He realized as 
never before that God had claims upon him 
for all that there was in him. He wished to 
grow in mental as in spiritual power, and did 
not think of neglecting his physical develop- 
ment. In the gymnasium he wore the 
gloves, or pulled the ropes, or wielded the 
clubs as before, but with a higher resolve 
stamped upon his brow. He lifted the pow- 
ers of his being out of the mire, and held 
them up into the sunlight. He felt that 
superficiality was a peril, and that the stu- 
dent that is profited by his course is the 
one that is not content with a mere smat- 


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79 


tering of knowledge, but who improves his 
time in such a way that he learns how to 
study, and becomes a proficient in acquiring 
information. A man may go through col- 
lege and remain stupid and unlearned. A 
man may acquire an acquaintance with lan- 
guages, with mathematics, and with science, 
without ever entering a college. It is a mis- 
taken notion which ranks college-educated 
men as learned, and every one else as un- 
learned or uneducated. 

Then, again, in college every one is lia- 
ble to have his specialty. One is fond of 
literature, another of languages, another of 
science, and another still of mathematics. 
The peril is in permitting fancy to run away 
with duty. A man with all of his faculties 
developed is superior to one who is only 
partially instructed. It is said that Edward 
Everett ranked high as a linguist, as a math- 
ematician, and as a proficient in general lit- 
erature. He did well whatever he had to 
do. He was round and complete in his devel- 
opment. It is said that a distinguished living 


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preacher was a specialist, that he knew noth- 
ing of mathematics, but was good in general 
literature. It is now known that the man 
most fully developed is the greatest power. 
These views were frequently referred to in 
the letters of Mr. Chester to his son. The 
father was anxious that Arthur should not 
be swept away by excitement from his moor- 
ings. He believed in mental development. 
He sought to have his boy consecrate all 
his powers to taking high rank in his class. 
Robert Graham was inclined to cultivate the 
muses. He wrote finely for the college 
paper, and was proud of the recognition 
his contributions received in the literary 
world. 

Arthur worked hard on his lessons. He 
took high rank. General literature he neg- 
lected. The fields of thought which opened 
around him attracted him. He studied the 
lessons and he read much besides. In math- 
ematics he solved the problems given him, 
and permitted his mind to wander in the 
mazes of thought opening before him, and 


Show Your Colors. 


so he created problems which attracted 
notice and gave him position as a mathema- 
tician. The result was, he became noted 
for strength rather than for adornment. His 
opinions became influential. In the class- 
room and with the faculty he had weight. 
His faith in Christ helped him rather than 
hindered him. It restrained him from going 
wrong, and lifted him into new realms of 
thought. He worshiped God with new 
zest, as he saw worlds balancing worlds and 
suns leading them into infinite stretches of 
space, and all held to a given purpose and 
ruled by a common mind. Robert had pol- 
ish, wit, poetry, where Arthur had rugged- 
ness, strong common sense, and logical pow- 
ers of a high order 

TEMPTATIONS TO TURN ASIDE. 

In college, temptations to turn aside 
abound. Has a young man social power, 
his room is in danger of becoming a loafing- 
place for idlers and drones. Has he musical 
proclivities, those who make it a specialty 


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will gather about him. Does he love cards 
or dice, his room will be full of students of 
similar tastes. Does he wish to study, then 
he must press on amidst interruptions of no 
ordinary character. He must give up the 
reputation of being clever. Popularity may 
not come to him, and for a time honors 
will seek to bind other brows with the 
wreath of fame. Let him hold on, and he will 
master the difficulties and win a high posi- 
tion and a noble prize. But he will be sorely 
tempted to give them up. Arthur saw this 
and understood it. He was determined not 
to lose the favor of his father or sacrifice 
his position in college because he found 
Christ. He saw where Robert had gained 
on him in this part. He had saved the time 
which others had squandered in dissipation. 
He went to church one evening a week, and, 
when duty required, oftener, but he never 
slighted his studies. “ One duty at a time” 
was his motto. Another was “ Duties never 
conflict.” Arthur recognized this truth, and 
determined to work as never before. He 


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83 


found in the favor of God a new stimulus to 
exertion, and so, as he went back to college, 
he determined to lay his all on God’s altar 
and work as never before. He would have 
been glad to have mingled with the people 
of God. The stories of Elder Knapp’s 
queer sayings were on every lip. The col- 
lege talk was full of incidents of the great 
revival. Arthur wisely said, “ I can give up 
as much time to my spiritual development 
as I formerly gave up to pleasure. The rest 
I will hold for the highest aims and the best 
interests of my mind and soul.” He was at 
peace with all the world. In the conversion 
of Alice he had unalloyed joy. He knew 
that she would exert a telling influence upon 
her home. He could see that his father’s 
thought was influenced by what Christ had 
done for him. He followed Alice in his im- 
agination. He wondered what her course 
would be in the home, and what kind of a 
reception would meet her. He had not 
long to wait. The next day a messenger 
came to his room bearing a letter from 


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the Hollister mansion. It read as fol- 
lows : 

“ Dear Arthur : Last night, when I 
reached home, father was in the library. As 
I entered the house he wished me to take a 
seat near him. He noticed that I had been 
weeping. He asked me the cause. I de- 
scribed the scene at your mother’s, and told 
him my experience. He grew very pale 
and was silent. After sitting by his side 
some time I opened the Bible to the first of 
John, and marked the words, ‘ He came 
unto his own and his own received him 
not ; but to as many as received him , to them 
gave he power to become the sons of God , even 
to them that believe on his name ,’ and went 
to my room and prayed for him. This 
morning he was very thoughtful. I know 
not what is before us, but I am looking for- 
ward with real anxiety to the meeting of 
Saturday evening. Praying that God may 
keep us in the love of Christ, I am, as ever, 
your friend, Alice Hollister. 

“ P. S. — Nina is delighted that your chum 


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85 


Robert Graham, is invited. She is rather 
partial to the ‘ Poet.’ ” 

“ Hurrah, Robert,” said Arthur, as he 
read the postscript, “ here is a compliment 
for you.” 

Then he read it, and Robert replied : 

“ I know of no one from whom such 
words would be more acceptable. But you 
must look out, Arthur. Y ou know we have 
fought violently against intrusion and pre- 
occupation of mind ; but, do you know, our 
greatest peril will reach us in the region of 
the heart ? Father says, wisely, that a boy 
that goes through college and does not get 
in love, will get on. The mass of the boys 
and girls have their early love, and many of 
them get engaged when they know no more 
what they need, or what they will need to 
fight out the 'battle, than infants at the 
breast.” 

“ That depends,” said Arthur, “ upon what 
kind of people get in love. A man that falls 
in love as a man falls into the mud, and lies 
there sprawling, without power to help him- 


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self, a spooney — a man whose head is not 
level, who faints when a woman presses his 
hand, and is ready to collapse when some 
one permits him to kiss her — such a one 
might be ruined if there was anything to 
ruin. But, I tell you, all are not like that. 
A strong, healthy love would do a man good. 
If Alice Hollister loved a man she would 
help him. She would spur him on to exer- 
tion ; she would inspire him with high 
resolves, and make him despise trifling. If 
there was anything in a man, she would 
demand that it be forthcoming.” 

“ Well,” said Robert, “ in other words 
every one is in danger but Arthur Chester, 
whereas, his chum thinks him two-thirds 
over the precipice already, and in danger of 
going over at any moment. Nonsense — 
that is what I call it — sheer nonsense. The 
boys who get in love are in danger of being 
lost. Those in this college who are engaged 
are behind those who are bending all their 
powers to the mastering of the studies 
which demand their attention.” 


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87 


“ Doubt it. If reports are true, Dr. Hol- 
lister loved my mother in college. But 
when he got out and went to Philadelphia, 
wealth captivated him, and he gave up 
genius for gold, and is not half the man he 
would have been had he held on to love. I 
am not in love — never was — would be glad 
to be. Alice Hollister is my friend. She is 
above me in station, in advantages, in 
opportunities, but I honor and revere her. 
Look out for yourself. Your theories are 
very good so far away from Nina. But 
remember the moth and the candle. The 
moth can say fire burns, but, when the light 
is shining he slips into it, and his wings are 
burned. Look out for your wings to-mor- 
row. Let us get our lessons.” 


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CHAPTER VII. 

THE REVIVAL ITS INFLUENCE IN THE 

COLLEGE AND IN HOMES. 

The revival in Boston was spreading 
through New England. There was every- 
where a quickening in regard to divine 
things. Religion became the theme in the 
rail-car, in places of business, and in the 
saloons of fashion. Ministers and others 
came from long distances to the city. They 
lighted their torches at the common altar, 
and flamed them amid the darkness at 
home. Prayer-meetings were strengthened. 
The pulpit became the sounding-board for 
old truths. Christ and Him crucified was 
the theme everywhere. Wm. Ellery Chan- 
ning, who never was satisfied with his 
spiritual condition and state, watched the 
work with marvelous interest. Baron Stowe, 
D. D., and Rollin H. Neal, D. D., the pas- 
tor of the First Baptist Church, stood side 


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89 


by side with the great Evangelist, and 
preached with almost supernatural power. 

The duties of college were enlivened by 
the discussion which was pervading the 
country. In Boston the revival which, at 
its beginning, resembled the smoking flax, 
had become a conflagration. The town was 
stirred by it. Prayer-meetings and preach- 
ing services were the order of the day. The 
stronger the truth the better was it liked. The 
devil became a personality. Sin was felt to be 
a hindrance. The moral nature was waked 
up. Preaching-meetings, held before day- 
light, were crowded. Everybody went to 
meeting — some for one reason, and some 
for another. The enemies of truth were as 
busy as were its friends. The theaters 
began to be deserted. The press became 
disturbed. Wicked men in editorial chairs 
foamed out their shame. The friends of 
Christ gave full reports of sermons and 
prayer-meetings. The town was full of 
thoughts of God. Mr. Knapp came out 
against Unitarianism and Universalism, and 


90 


Show Your Colors. 


all kinds and systems of error. He called sins 
out by name, and did not even exempt sin- 
ners. He bore down heavily on the manu- 
facture, sale, and use of intoxicating liquors. 
He cried out against the infidelity of the 
city. The press attacked him. Mobs 
threatened him. Some deserted him, and 
others stood by him. The excitement be- 
came intense. The revival was the talk in 
club and bar-room. It penetrated the the- 
aters and lecture-halls. It permeated the 
atmosphere of the home. In Harvard Col- 
lege it had friends and foes. The room of 
Graham and Chester was the headquarters 
for those who favored the work of God. 
People were disturbed. They felt that 
“the wrath of God was revealed from 
heaven against all ungodliness and un- 
righteousness of men who hold the truth in 
unrighteousness.” The Bible came to be read 
and studied. It was brought out from con- 
cealment, and was found on nearly every 
students table. One marked feature of 
the meetings was the manner in which 


Show Your Colors. 


9i 


Christians would support plain speaking. 
The carping spirit gave way to that of 
earnest endeavor. Under such an influence 
the young men were to go to Dr. Hollister. 
They thought little of what would be pro- 
vided for them at dinner, or of who would 
be there ; but rather of how they should 
bear themselves. It was their purpose to 
contend for the truth. They realized their 
responsibility. As they entered the library 
the young men were surprised at beholding 
their respective parents in conversation with 
Dr. Hollister. 

Robert Graham was a stranger to all ex- 
cepting his parents, Alice and Nina. He 
had seen the laughing face of the beautiful 
Nina on different occasions; knew some- 
thing of her power in song, but had no ac- 
quaintance with her personally. Arthur pre- 
sented him to Dr. Hollister, who introduced 
him to Mr. and Mrs. Chester, and passed 
him to his parents with the words, “ From 
his face and bearing, I think Mrs. Graham 
must have seen him before.” 


92 


Show Your Colors. 


Mr. and Mrs. Chester greeted him very 
cordially, and both thanked him for his kind- 
ness to their son. 

Robert, ’ smaller than Arthur, was diffi- 
dent as a girl, and yet was as quick as 
Charles Lamb. He thanked one and all for 
his welcome, saying, u I have learned to ex- 
pect a good time whenever I am permitted 
to accompany Arthur. It is an unexpected 
honor that introduces me to this home. I 
am more than happy in meeting my beloved 
parents here.” 

“Well spoken,” said Dr. Hollister. “A 
boy that appreciates the love of those at 
home will pass muster anywhere ; don’t you 
think so, Nina ? ” 

“ Such an one will be sure of your love, 
father, and as I am proud to wait on 
any one you commend, I think I will ask 
Mr. Graham to take a look through the 
house.” 

“Did you mean me?” said Pastor Gra- 
ham. “ I am Mr. Graham. My son is 
known as Robert.” 


Show Your Colors. 


93 


“ Perhaps both would like to come with 
me ? ” 

The invitation was accepted by both Pas- 
tor Graham and his wife, and with Alice and 
Arthur, Robert and Nina, they took a stroll 
through the gallery, and enjoyed together 
the wonderful views from the tower. Mrs. 
Graham kept close to Nina and Robert, or 
they kept close to her. Mrs. Graham and 
Robert were enraptured by what they saw. 
Nina was a connoisseur of art. When love 
lights up a picture it becomes very fine. An 
ordinary painting would have looked su- 
perb to Robert, with Nina to place him 
in the right light, point out the foreshort- 
ening and perspective, and call his attention 
to the proofs of artistic skill. Such oppor- 
tunities for enjoyment were very rare. Their 
look at the engravings, which revealed the 
glories of mediaeval architecture, furnished 
two or three opportunities for Robert to say 
a word for his Master. Arthur and Alice 
talked of nothing else. Robert found to his 
amazement that Nina was a stranger to his 


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Lord. He said to her : “ Dear Nina, I go with 
you with supreme delight through this gallery. 
I can enjoy the landscape views, the sublime 
portrayal of historic incidents and pictures of 
world-wide fame, and I wish you could go 
with mother and myself up a little higher and 
see the glory there is circling about the Qross. 
I see you are dead to that picture,” — point- 
ing to Rubens’ portrayal of the Crucifixion. 

“ I don’t like it,” said Nina ; “ I can’t bear 
suffering or blood.” 

“Not when the blood was shed and the 
suffering was endured for you ? ” 

“ No ; I am too young. I want pleasure 
now, and not piety. I leave theology to 
older people.” 

. “ How long can you afford to leave it to 
other people, dear Nina ? May it not be 
for your interest now to give attention to the 
subject ? ” 

“ Please let us not talk of this ; we are to 
enjoy this evening without thinking of the 
beyond — of what sorrows it may bring us.” 

“ Dear Nina, you do not know Christ,” 


Show Your Colors . 


95 


said Mrs. Graham ; “we think of the beyond 
with exquisite joy. These paintings are 
poor transcripts of nature. Gods painting 
of the sunset, yonder, is finer than that 
painting,” directing attention to a beautiful 
picture of wonderful beauty ; “so heaven is 
more beautiful than we can describe it. 
Christ, now a possession, makes life a 
delight here and a joy forevermore.” 

“ Perhaps you are right, Mrs. Graham. I 
have never yet given serious thought to this 
subject, nor to any other,” said Nina, with a 
merry laugh. “ Father says I am too 
young.” 

They passed back to the library. 

“ Mr. Robert, don’t you sing ? ” said Nina. 

“ I will accompany you, Miss Nina.” 

They went into the parlor and opened the 
piano. They sang many very fine pieces, 
but Robert was not content. She asked 
him to play. He sat down to the piano and 
sang the first verse of 

“Jesus, lover of my soul, 

Let me to thy bosom fly.” 


96 


Show Your Colors. 


No sooner had his full notes rolled 
through the rooms, than Dr. Hollister pro- 
posed all should join them. Arthur took 
the base, Robert the tenor. Nina sang 
soprano, and Alice the alto. Mrs. Chester 
joined Alice, and Mrs. Graham joined 
Nina, while Pastor John Graham, as usual, 
sang with all his might, nearly drowning all 
others with his tones, his face glowing with 
excitement, as if he were in the midst of a 
revival meeting. The enthusiasm was 
catching. Mrs. Hollister seemed to be 
swept away by it. Mr. Chester was in pain. 
That sad look came again. He was like 
one standing on the shore and seeing the 
objects of his love sailing out on the infinite 
ocean away from him. Dr. Hollister’s quick 
eye caught the outlines of the picture, and, 
stepping up to his wife, said : 

“ This is as good as a play. Who would 
have thought of our having such a scene as 
this in our house ? ” 

Mrs. Hollister looked up in tears. The 
words 


Show Your Colors. 


97 


“ Hide me, O my Saviour, hide, 

Till the storm of life is past ; 

Safe into the haven guide ; 

Oh, receive my soul at last,” 

had struck home to her heart. She con- 
fessed that she never understood the mis- 
sion of Christ until she heard Pastor 
Graham putting his whole soul into those 
lines. 

“A compliment for you, Mr. Graham.” 

“ For me?” asked the parson. 

“Yes. Wife says she never understood 
the mission of Christ until you sung 


4 Hide me, O my Saviour, hide ! ’ ” 


The pastor made no reply. His lips 
moved in thanksgiving. Then he told this 
story : 

“The daughter of an English nobleman 
was converted. The father was utterly op- 
posed to her giving up life and its pleasures 
for the cold formalism and austerities of 
religion. He traveled with her. He tried 
to divert her attention, but in vain. She 
7 


9 8 


Show Your Colors . 


found her pleasure in communion with 
Christ. Lovers came and lovers went. She 
had no ear for them. A great party was 
made for her. She was to be introduced to 
society. Preparations had been made for 
days and weeks. The company gathered. 
The young lord who was her suitor asked 
the privilege of leading her to the floor, and 
of dancing with her. She replied, ‘ I would 
prefer to play.’ He then led her to the 
piano. The floor was filled with dancers. 
She took her seat at the piano, and sweep- 
ing her fingers over the keys, thrilled all 
hearts by an impromptu prayer set to music, 
and then struck into this tune. During the 
first verse there was simply consternation. 
The father and mother and other friends 
gathered near her. Then, lifting up her face, 
her eyes filled with tears, and looking far 
away as if really seeing her Christ, she put 
her whole soul into the verse : 

‘Other refuge have I none ; 

Hangs my helpless soul on thee ; 

Leave, ah ! leave me not alone, 

Still support and comfort me. 


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99 


‘ All my trust in thee is stayed ; 

All my help from thee I bring ; 

Cover my defenseless head 
With the shadow of thy wing. 

‘ Thou, O Christ ! art all I want. 

More than all in thee I find. 

Raise the fallen, cheer the faint, 

Heal the sick and lead the blind.’ 

“ When she reached those last words, she 
looked into the face of him who sought her 
hand, and of the father whose heart-love 
she craved. There was no more dancing. 
The form of the Fourth seemed to be in 
their midst.” 

“ Dr. Hollister, I feel that He is near to- 
night. Let us sing the next verse.” 

They sang it softly, sweetly, and its in- 
fluence touched all hearts but one. Mr. 
Chester sat down and looked apart. He was 
in perplexity and doubt. Robert rose from 
the place and asked Nina to resume it. She 
said, “ No ; let Alice sing.” 

Alice came and sang : 


Rock of Ages, cleft for me, 
Let me hide myself in thee” — 


IOO 


Show Your Colors . 


and all joined in, while Nina and Robert 
went apart again. A new look was on her 
face. They talked in low tones of Jesus and 
His love. Robert realized that an immortal 
soul was committed to his keeping. It was 
not a time for trifling, but to show one’s col-' 
ors and evidence on what side he stood. 

Robert and Nina conversing together was 
a pleasant sight to behold. 

“ Hard to believe your doctrine of ‘ Total 
Depravity,’ when you see such children,” 
said Dr. Hollister to Pastor Graham, after 
the singing ceased. 

“ I don’t know how it is with Nina, but 
Robert has shown possibilities in that direc- 
tion quite alarming.” 

“Indeed!” 

“ Yes. No one can describe my joy 
when God changed his heart and made him 
an heir of grace.” 

“ Do you mean to say you saw any spe- 
cial work wrought in him ? ” asked the doc- 
tor. 

“ I never saw anything more marked.” 


Show Your Colors. ioi 

“ What do you say about Arthur, Mr. 
Chester ? ” ’ 

“ Arthur is a different boy ; he has lost 
his old nature. What he used to love he 
hates, and what he used to dislike he seems 
to love.” 

“You really think so ? ” 

“I do.” 

“ How came this change ? ” continued the 
doctor, very much with the same tone of 
voice he would make a diagnosis of a disease. 

“ Better ask the mother ; it is all Greek 
to me. In spite of myself I am surrounded 
by mystery.” 

Just then dinner was announced, and all 
repaired to the dining-room. 


102 


Show Your Colors. 


CHAPTER VIII. 

THE DINNER— BEGUN IN SUNSHINE, ENDING 
IN CLOUD. 

The dinner revealed the character of the 
host. The dishes were of rare china. The 
great oak chairs stood round about. Dr. 
Hollister stepped to his place, the guests 
surrounded the table and remained stand- 
ing, while the head of the house opened a 
small copy of the Proverbs of Solomon, and 
after reading a passage, asked Rev. Mr. 
Graham to invoke the divine blessing. He 
did it without ostentation, but with remark- 
able fervor. The Spirit of God seemed to 
inspire him. He prayed for the united head 
of the home, for the guests, for the family, 
and especially for those who had found 
Christ, and were ready to stand for Him in 
public or private. Then he besought God 
to lead their conversation aright, that while 
they fed their bodies, their souls might be 


Show Your Colors. 103 

blessed with the food that cometh down 
from heaven. 

The table was served in accordance with 
the demands of the most generous hos- 
pitality. Colored Jim, the body-servant, 
knew his place, and ministered to all with a 
dignity, and an unostentatious attention, 
which honored the cultured master of the 
household quite as much as it did the trained 
servant. 

Dr. Hollister was in fine spirits. The 
soup was not half distributed before he was 
again following out the suggestions which 
he had made in regard to a change of 
heart. As the young men were at the 
table, Dr. Hollister addressed himself to 
Arthur, and said, “We have been talking 
about your conversion ; can you tell us 
about it?” 

“Indeed!” replied Arthur, diffidently. 

“ I can only say, as did the man who had 
been born blind, ‘ whereas I was blind, now 

I ) )) 

see. 

“See what?” 


104 


Show Your Colors. 


“ See truth in a new light, and see Christ 
in a new way.’’ 

“ Let us understand the old way and the 
new.” 

“ The old way,” said Arthur, “ was that I 
could not see anything in Christ. He was 
to me as a root out of dry ground. There 
was no form nor comeliness in Him, that I 
should desire Him, and I turned my face 
persistently away from Him. At length the 
Holy Spirit began to work upon my heart. 
I felt that I was a sinner and that I needed a 
Saviour. I was told that it was excitement. 
I tried to drown my feelings in dissipation, 
and to do away with my convictions, but in 
vain. I grew utterly wretched. I could 
pray, but I could not believe. I could call 
upon God to forgive me, but I had no love 
for Christ, nor for the Bible, nor for God’s 
people. Robert tried to pray for me. I 
came home utterly wretched, and heard 
father preach, but it did not help me. I was 
lost. The death-wail of our companion was 
in my ears, and the look of his eyes stood 


Show Your Coloi's. io5 

out before me. I was utterly wretched. At 
length I could hold out no more. I cried, ‘I 
believe — help thou my unbelief l and then a 
change was wrought in my heart. The 
word my was a clasp that enabled me to 
make every promise of God’s Word mine. 
I had a peace I never knew before. I had 
Jesus formed within me, the hope of glory.” 

“ Now hold on,” said Dr. Hollister, “what 
do you mean by that ? ” 

“ I mean just this, that Jesus seemed to 
come into my heart. I received Him as 
you receive a guest. He came in and took 
up His abode. He ruled me. He told me 
what to do and what to say. He is my 
companion. I whisper to Him prayers, and 
He whispers back to me promises.” 

“ There, there ; I doubt,” cried the doc- 
tor. 

“ Well/ said Mr. Graham, “ you need 
not. The experience of Arthur is a com- 
mon one. Robert, you had the same, did 
you not ? ” 

“ Yes, sir, very much the same, only I had 


io6 


Show Your Colors . 


not such a struggle. The Lord captured me 
very early. I did not contend. I submitted. 
He called me, and I followed Him. Mother 
thinks I never met with any definite change, 
but I can remember how utterly opposed I 
was once to doing the things which I find it 
easy to do now.” 

The conversation went on. 

Nina, who sat beside Robert, in a low 
voice asked : 

“ Did you ever feel something in you say- 
ing, ‘Don't you do it ,’ when Christ com- 
manded you to believe in Him?” 

“Yes.” 

“ Well, I have that feeling now, and some- 
times when Alice prays I want to push her 
over and tell her to go to bed. Is that very 
wicked? ” 

“Yes; that is because of a rebellious na- 
ture, which ought to be subdued.” 

“ Father, Robert says I have a rebellious 
nature.” 

“ All have it,” said Mrs. Chester. 

During all this time Mr. Chester had 


Show Your Colors . 


107 


remained silent. His face betokened 
deep solicitude and anxiety, and yet an 
utterly mystified intellect. He was in the 
night. 

“Arthur,” said Dr. Hollister, “another 
word about your receiving Christ as a 
Saviour. What did you do ? ” 

“ Opened the door of my heart just as 
you would open the door of your library. I 
believed that Christ was in the Word of 
Faith, and that He was the rewarder of all 
who diligently seek him. I received Christ, 
and spoke because of it. I felt Him and 
said so. I loved Him and confessed Him. 
He became my manifest God. I loved 
God because of Christs love in me. I 
sought to help men, because His love 
prompted me. His Word lived in my 
mind. It was like seed; it opened and 
grew within me.” 

“Did it make you want to do anything?” 

“Yes, sir.” 

“What?” 

“Come and confess before Dr. Hoi- 


108 Show Your Colors. 

lister the Saviour I had found, so soon as I 
had told my parents of my joy.” 

“ Is that all?” 

“ No, sir. That love prompts me to work 
for Him every day, and compels me to feel 
that I ought to profess His name before the 
world in baptism.” 

“You have been baptized, my son,” said 
Mr. Chester. 

“ In infancy, if at all, and before I believed, 
and, therefore, that is of no value.” 

The father looked up in amazement. He 
saw the peril opening before him. 

“ A new member for your church, Mr. 
Graham,” said Dr. Hollister. 

“If so, I never knew it before,” replied 
the Baptist pastor. 

The doctor changed the conversation, and 
then struck out into a dissertation on mes- 
merism, because of the wonderful stories 
then filling the press, and which soon 
swept over the land. But he talked against 
time. 

Mr. Chester admitted that his son’s expe- 


Show Your Colors . 109 

rience had disconcerted him. He was una- 
ble to remain at dinner. Arthur looked at 
Robert in a surprised way, and asked to be 
excused, that he might accompany his father 
home. Mrs. Chester rose to go, but her 
husband bade her remain, saying, “ Let 
Arthur come.” Mrs. Chester and the rest 
remained. Then the conversation became 
more general. Mrs. Hollister expressed 
her eagerness to hear more about this 
strange experience, and avowed her pur- 
pose to go to Boston and hear Mr. 
Knapp. 

“ It is not necessary to do that,” said 
Robert ; 4 ‘ he is to be with father in the 
morning.” 

She was dumfounded, and asked Mr. 
Graham if it was true that he was going to 
have that eccentric, odd preacher in his pul- 
pit. 

“He is very far from being what you 
think him, madam. Gossip is full of stories 
against him, but these are perversions of the 
truth. He is the most quiet, self-possessed 


1 1 o Show Your Colors . 

man I ever knew. It is what he says, not 
what he does that tells.” 

“ Didn’t he say that a sinner could no 
more get to heaven than a shad could climb 
a barber-pole tail foremost ? ’ 

“ Very likely; but if he did, he said it in 
the midst of such plain and pointed exposi- 
tions of truth that no one would notice it. 
The man is in earnest, and cares not what 
he says nor how he says it, if he may win a 
soul to Christ.” 

The singular fact appeared. All who knew 
the great evangelist loved him. To Mr. 
Graham and to Robert there was nothing 
strange or surprising about him. 

Robert said to Nina : “ Come with your 
mother and take a seat in our pew, and be 
ready to give up your rebellion. Y ou will 
see your peril as you never saw it.” 

And so with other experiences the dinner 
broke up, and the friends went away. 

Dr. Hollister retired to his books, and 
took down from the shelf his mother’s Bible 
and read it hour after hour. The seed was 


Show Your Colors . 


1 1 1 


being sown. The Spirit of God was at 
work in the heart of this cultured man, and 
he was becoming in spirit, as in disposition, 
a child again. 


I I 2 


Show Your Colors . 


CHAPTER IX. 

THE ILLNESS OF REV. MR. CHESTER — HIS 
STRUGGLE AND WHAT IT BROUGHT. 

Rev. Mr. Chester was in a wretched 
state. Doubts tortured him. Pride fettered 
him. Affection to his people and to those 
with whom he had been associated, bound 
his conscience to the dead past. For the 
first time he could understand Paul’s words, 
when he exclaimed, in the bitterness of 
anguish, “ Oh, wretched man that I am ! who 
shall deliver me from the body of this 
death ? ” He resembled a slave in one of 
those floating charnel-houses, chained to a 
dead body that begins to putrefy. It clung 
to him. He could not break away from it. 
The dead carcass becomes a peril. It 
threatens death. So was the error to which 
Mr. Chester had given welcome. It influ- 
enced him. It held him captive. It fought 
against truth, and compelled him to fight 
against it. To submit to Christ required 


Show Your Colors . 1 1 3 

him to take sides against himself — against 
his opinions. It is not a difficult thing for a 
sinner to hear sin denounced and to listen 
to the condemnation of the sinner, as is evi- 
denced by the hardened and unmoved multi- 
tude that withstand the most powerful 
appeals ; but to get a sinner to break out of 
the lines, to let go of the supports on which 
he has leaned, and to separate himself from 
the friends with whom he has been associ- 
ated, requires the aid of God, and of such a 
resolution on the part of a man as can only 
be understood by one who has passed 
through the conflict. “ Death to sin,” is only 
a good description of a terrible fact. The 
pangs of death are terrible. To see a strong 
man let go of life, is an awful picture. So is 
it to see a strong man delivered from the 
power of the adversary. Sin intrenches 
itself in a man. It holds the fortress. It 
shoots down all comers. It breaks truce 
with old friendship. It means endless 
destruction of soul and body in hell. On 
the other hand, Christ, the Captain of salva- 


Show Your Colors. 


114 

tion, goes to the deliverance of the soul. 
“ Behold, I stand at the door and knock ; if 
any man hear my voice and open the door, 
I will come in unto him and will sup with 
him, and he with me.” Jesus was knocking 
at the door of Mr. Chester’s heart. His 
conscience was aroused, but he knew not 
Christ. He knew not that there was a 
Christ. God was at an infinite remove from 
him, and there was no daysman, no medi- 
ator. He tried to pray, but, for the first 
time, he found that the words came back to 
him. The heavens seemed as iron above 
him, and the earth as brass beneath his feet. 
He could say with the Psalmist, “ I looked 
on my right hand and beheld, but there was 
no man that would know me ; refuge failed 
me ; no man cared for my soul.” There he 
f stopped. He could go no farther. On the 
way home he leaned heavily on the arm of 
his son, and kept saying to himself, “ I 
am utterly undone, I am utterly undone .” 
When he reached the house he sat down in 
his chair, and said : 


Show Your Colors. 1 1 5 

“ Arthur, bring me my dressing-gown.” 

It was brought to him. 

He laid aside his boots, and then reclined 
upon the lounge, and said : 

“Arthur, I want a friend, but I can no- 
where find one. My social feelings are as 
strong as ever, but I cannot often gratify 
them. I am sick of the unmeaning conver- 
sation of fashionable circles. By society I 
mean, with Dr. Channing, ‘the communion 
of souls.’ But where is this to be found ? 
I want to lean on the arm of a strong 
man.” 

“You want J esus Christ ? ” 

“ Where is He?” 

“ Here,” said Arthur, opening to the tenth 
of Romans, and reading the words which 
had once been so invaluable to himself: 
“ Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend 
into heaven ? (that is, to bring Christ down 
from above :) or who shall descend into the 
deep? (that is, to bring Christ up from the 
dead.) But what saith it? The Word — • 
the being who was in the beginning with 


1 1 6 Show Your Colors . 

God, and who was the Lord. The Word, 
by whom all things were made, and for 
whom all things consist — The Word is 
nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy 
heart : that is, the word of faith, which we 
preach ; that if thou shalt confess with thy 
mouth the Lord Jesus — ’ ” 

“There — there — that will dp. I do not 
want a passage of Scripture. I want a man. 
Somebody to believe in. Somebody to 
rest upon, to touch and to handle with my 
hand, and to feel the clasp of his hand/’ 

“Exactly,” said Arthur; “I have been 
there. You want Jesus Christ.” 

“ But where is He ? ” 

“ He is here. How do you know I am 
here ? ” 

“ Why, I hear you.” 

“ God commands you to hear Jesus Christ 
in His Word, saying, ‘ Let not your heart be 
troubled ; ye believe in God, believe also in 
me.’ The ‘Me’ is here. He is close be- 


Show Your Colors. 


ii 7 

is present with me. He stretches out His 
hand to you. Take it, father. Say, as did 
Saul in his blindness, ‘ Lord, what wilt thou 
have me to do ? ’ Saul was blind ; he could 
not see. But he answers as if he could 
see. You could talk to me with your eyes 
closed, and feel that I was near you. 
This you are to do with Jesus. He is near 
you and near me. I see Him ; you refuse 
to do so.” 

The agony of the man became terrible. 
At last he turned and said : 

“ Did you ever hear of Dr. Channing’s 
experience ? ” 

“To what do you refer?” 

“ Why, that he went with his father to 
hear a celebrated preacher. With very 
glowing rhetoric the lost state of the man 
was described, his abandonment to evil, 
helplessness, dependence upon sovereign 
grace, and the need of earnest prayer as the 
condition of receiving this divine aid. In 
the view of the speaker, a curse seemed to 
rest upon the earth, and darkness and hor- 


1 1 8 Show Your Colors. 

ror to vail the face of nature. William, for 
his part, supposed that henceforth those who 
believed would abandon all other things to 
seek this salvation ; and that amusement 
and earthly business would no longer occupy 
a moment. The service over, they went 
out of the church, and his father, in answer 
to the remark of some person, said, with a 
decisive tone, ‘ Sound doctrine, sir.’ ‘ It is all 
true, then/ was his inward reflection. A 
heavy weight fell on his heart. He wanted 
to speak to his father. He expected his 
father would speak to him in relation to this 
tremendous crisis of things. They got into 
their chaise and rode along, but, absorbed 
in awful thoughts, he could not raise his 
voice. Presently his father began to whis- 
tle ! At length they reached home, but in- 
stead of calling the family together and tell- 
ing them of the appalling intelligence which 
the preacher had given, his father took off 
his boots, put his feet towards the fire- 
place, and quietly read a newspaper. All 
things went on as usual. At first he was 


Show Your Colors. 


119 

surprised, but not being given to talking, 
he asked no explanations. Soon, how- 
ever, the question arose, ‘ Could what he 
heard be true?’ No! his father did not 
believe it ; people did not believe it. It 
was not true.” 

“ What do you think of Dr. Channing’s 
course ? ” 

“ I think,” said Arthur, “ that he made 
then and there the mistake of his life. The 
father may have neglected to discharge his 
duty ; but, like others, perhaps he waited 
to be inquired of before he offered advice, 
and his son made no inquiries. But his 
son should have made inquiries. Disbe- 
lieving a truth does not destroy it, as I 
found to my sorrow, and as Dr. Chan- 
ning finds to his sorrow. His ser- 
mons have in them much of beauty, but 
little help. He did not know Christ for 
years after, and I am afraid never did 
know Him of whom ‘ Moses and the proph- 
ets did write/ until his life work was fin- 
ished. If reports are true, he has been 


I 20 


Show Your Colors. 


helped by these efforts of Mr. Knapp, and 
has come into such enjoyment and rest as 
he never knew before.” 

There is reason to believe that Arthur 
was correct about Dr. Channing. There 
was no sadder life than the one he lived 
among men. When in Richmond he felt 
the gloom which enshrouds the soul 
of the guilty and the lost. He said, 
speaking of the Unitarians : “Christianity is 
breathing its last. The Bible is wholly 
neglected. The treasure of wisdom and 
comfort is trodden under foot. The won- 
ders of redeeming love excite no sentiments 
of gratitude. The glad tidings of a Saviour 
is heard without joy. Infidelity is very gen- 
eral among the higher classes, and they who 
do not reject Christianity can hardly be said 
to believe, as they never examine the 
foundations on which it rests. In fine, re- 
ligion is in a deplorable state. And what 
was true of Richmond was equally true of 
Boston.” 

“You remember, Arthur, that Dr. Chan- 


Show Your Colors. 


121 


nin g tells us he made an unconditional sur- 
render to God.” 

“Yes, but he failed to recognize Jesus 
Christ as Saviour, and so it never brought 
him peace.” 

“Do you remember the letter of Dr. 
Channing, in whicji he described that ter- 
rible ordeal ? ” said Mrs. Chester, who had 
now come in. 

“No, I do not.” 

“ Let me get it. Here it is. He says 
that he passed his days and nights in an 
out-building, except during the brief hours 
of school-keeping, crying for help. His 
constitution sank under the unintermitting 
exertion. ‘With not a human being to 
whom I could communicate my deepest 
thoughts and feelings, I passed through 
intellectual and moral conflicts, through ex- 
citements of heart and mind, so absorbing as 
often to banish sleep, and to destroy almost 
wholly the power of digestion. I struggled 
with my whole soul for purity, truth, and 
goodness/ Yet he was never content. 


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Would that some one could have whispered 
these words for Christ in his ear: ‘Come 
unto me, ye that labor and are heavy laden, 
and I will give you rest.’ ‘Take my yoke 
upon you, and learn of me ; for I am meek 
and lowly in heart ; and ye shall find rest 
unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and 
my burden is light.’ Arthur, pray with us, 
and we will retire.” 

It was a trying place for the young 
man. But he did not shrink from the re- 
sponsibilities of the position. He prayed 
in faith. He came out of the shadow into 
the sunshine. He obtained help of God. 
He prayed for his father as for a lost soul. 
He prayed that he might see himself as 
lost and undone. It was a prayer full of 
tenderness, marked by simplicity and god- 
ly power. Rising from his knees, he 
kissed his mother, and then stepped up to 
his father, who was yet reclining upon the 
lounge. Taking his hand, the father said : 

“My son, do you think I am lost?” 

“ Certainly, unless you believe in Christ.” 


Show Your Colors. 


123 


The father made no reply, but buried 
his face in his hands. Arthur retired to 
his room. The excitement of the day had 
been simply terrific. Arthur had been in 
a crisis. He had uncovered Calvary and 
pointed to a reeking cross. Jesus was with 
him. But there was no one near him to 
whom he could unburden his heart. He 
opened to the I42d Psalm. When his father 
stopped he went on, and cried unto the 
Lord, saying : “ Thou art my refuge and 
my portion in the land of the living.” He 
retired, and slept he knew not how long, 
when he was awakened by his mother, say- 
ing: 

“ Arthur, hurry and get Dr. Hollister ; I 
am afraid your father is dying.” 

Arthur arose, and hurried over to the 
house of his friend. It was a long walk. It 
seemed to him that he should never reach 
the place. He at last, fainting, rung the 
bell. The doctor came to the tube and in- 
quired : 


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“ Who is there ? ” 

“ Arthur Chester,” was the reply. “ We 
are afraid father is dying.’’ 

“ I will be down in a moment. Run to 
the coachman, and have Charley harnessed 
into the chaise.” 

As the doctor stepped out upon the step 
Arthur drove up. The house was roused. 
Alice was partially dressed, and inquired 
about the case. Arthur briefly told her all 
he knew, and said : 

“ Pray, Alice ; the turning-point in his life 
has come.” 

On the way over Arthur related what 
had transpired. They enter the sick-room. 
Dr. Hollister examines the patient, and 
says : 

- “ Mr. Chester, there is nothing the mat- 
ter of your body — your mind is diseased. 
You are in trouble. You do not need 
medicine. You need quiet and assuring 
faith.” 

“Ah! but I cannot find rest or faith. 


Show Your Colors. 


125 


Arthur, go and ask Mr. Graham to come 
over.” 

He hurried. The Baptist pastor was up 
and at prayer. He felt the burden of souls 
so on him that he could not sleep. While 
Mr. Chester had been in an agony of doubt, 
Mr. Graham had been in an agony of 
prayer. He felt that the next day was to 
be one long to be remembered. Jacob 
Knapp called on the people to pray wher- 
ever he went to preach. He claimed that 
his power was in answer to prayer. Mr. 
Graham was praying for him. 

He stepped into the sick-chamber. Mr. 
Chester was sitting up. His face was very 
pale. He said : 

“Mr. Graham, I never thought I should 
send for you, but I want some one to lean 
on. I am in midnight darkness. I want to 
feel the touch and clasp of a hand.” 

“You want my Master; let the servant 
place your hand in His.” 

“Arthur says I want Jesus Christ, but I 
don’t know Him. Nor do I know where I 


126 


Show Your Colors. 


can find Him. He is dead to me as is any 
other man.” 

Mr. Graham opened to the tenth of Ro- # 
mans, and began to read. 

“Arthur has just read that.” 

“Well, you must believe it or be lost!' 

“In my opinion,” said the sick man, “you 
are strangely dogmatic.” 

“We cannot be otherwise. We are ser- 
vants of an infinitely holy God, Who will not 
tolerate the sin of unbelief. Y ou must bow 
at His behest, or die eternally. The dear 
Christ is, and is the rewarder of those who 
seek him with all the heart.” 

Without a word the sick man turned over 
on his pillow and shook with grief. He 
would make no reply. Long they waited. 
At break of day Mr. Graham prayed for his 
friend, and wrestled as did Jacob, but he did 
not prevail. He went home. Dr. Hollister 
did the same. 

The Sabbath was a day of sorrow in the 
parsonage of the Unitarian Church. Many 
of the prominent men called. They were 


Show Your Colors. 


12 7 


poor comforters. “ Saul was blind, and 
behold, he prayeth.” They charged the 
trouble to nervousness, and prescribed 
travel. Mr. Chester paid little heed to 
them. 


128 


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CHAPTER X. 

THE SABBATH— THE PREACHING OF MR. KNAPP 
AND ITS RESULT. 

The illness of Mr. Chester became known. 
The Unitarian pulpit was filled by a Har- 
vard professor, but the people went to the 
Baptist meeting-house to hear Mr. Knapp. 
Dr. Hollister and family were there early. 
Alice was in the spirit on the Lord’s Day. 
The illness of Mr. Chester, the condition of 
her parents, the manner in which Nina 
resisted the influences of the Holy Spirit, 
had made a deep impression on her heart. 
N ina was uncomfortable. N o w she was wild 
with excitement, and, anon, was suffused 
with tears. At one moment she refused to 
go to meeting, and, at another, resolved to 
go. Now she would say outrageous things 
against Mr. Knapp, and call Arthur a 
fanatic, and Alice a something worse, and 
then she would exclaim : 


Show Your Colors. 129 

“ I wish I knew whether this is excite- 
ment or conviction of sin ! ” 

They are in the house of God. Jacob 
Knapp rises in the pulpit. He is a short, 
thick-set man, bushy eyebrows, side whis- 
kers, shaven chin, large and pleasant mouth, 
and thick, black hair, surmounting a head 
that is distinguished for strength of will and 
abundance of reasoning power. Timothy 
Gilbert, a quiet man, came with him from 
Boston. He was to him what Jonathan was 
to David. Mr. Knapp made his house his 
home. He sits near the pulpit, looking, for 
all the world, like a minister. Mr. Knapp 
rises and opens the Word of God. He 
looked every inch the man. He was ear- 
nest, outspoken, and fearless. Christians 
rallied about him with enthusiastic devotion. 
They saw the gleam of the Jerusalem blade 
as it shone forth when he led Gods ban- 
nered host in an attack upon the devil’s 
stronghold, and spoke in behalf of the death- 
less interests of the soul in language so for- 
cible, so full of argument, so sustained by 


130 


Show Your Colors . 


the declarations of Almighty God, that the 
stoutest unbelief was shattered, and the 
champions of infidelity were confounded and 
overthrown. That he leaned on God for 
victory was evidenced in the request for 
prayer, which was scattered broadcast, with 
this caption : 

WHAT DO WE PROPOSE TO DO ? 

1. This — pray for the presence of Christ 
in the Holy Spirit of God, which shall 
enable the Church to travail in birth for 
souls. 

2. Pray that it may be shown and known 
in Boston and in New England that the 
revival power is but the power which shall 
be revealed when God stretches forth His 
arm for battle, and sends forth the tidal wave 
of salvation which shall break down the 
images of superstition and overflow the 
altars of Baal. 

3. Let it be known that God inhabiteth 
the praises of Israel, and that the Church is 
to be clothed with salvation as a garment. 


Show Your Colors. 


131 

4. Last, but not least — for we do not seek 
to save ourselves, but others — we believe 
that if Christians will thus pray, in due time 
Zion shall be made to rejoice in beholding 
uncounted numbers of lost men and women 
brought to Christ. Our ultimate object is 
to come to the help of the lost. Sinner, are 
you not in peril ? If the righteous scarcely 
be saved, where shall the sinner and 
ungodly appear ? We invite all who love 
our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ to aid us 
in this work, for, if we break through the 
enemy’s line at this point, the Churches of 
Christ shall everywhere share in the fruits 
of the victory. 

This prepared the way before him. He 
read the twenty-third chapter of Matthew, 
and chose for his text the thirteenth verse : 
“Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, 
hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of 
heaven against men ; for ye neither go in 
yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are 
entering to go in.” 

Arthur sat next to Dr. Hollister, and as 


132 


Show Your Colors. 


the preacher read the text in his quaint way, 
and with the solemnity of eternity manifest 
on the preacher’s face, and in his tone, 
as well as upon the countenances of the 
audience, Dr. Hollister looked to Arthur, 
which seemed to say, “This means busi- 
ness.” 

The preacher began by saying : 

“The text teaches that one man may shut 
up the kingdom of God against another. 
Whoever walks in the council of the un- 
godly, and sits in the seat of the scornful, 
stands in the way of sinners. Jesus pro- 
nounced a woe against those who neither 
enter into the kingdom of God themselves, 
nor suffer them that are entering to go in. 
This makes it a solemn thing to live in 
this world, and devolves vast responsibili- 
ties upon every human being. As quick 
as we appear here in this world we begin 
to contribute to the happiness or misery of 
our fellow-men. Our influence is felt all 
the way through life, for good or for evil. 
We are either doing something to help the 


Show Your Colors . 


133 


human race along up the hill of virtue and 
morality, and so aid them to reach heaven, 
or we are doing something to hinder them, 
throw them back, halt them in their efforts. 
We never can throw off this responsibility. 
If we turn our back upon the interests of 
souls we prove ourselves to be recreant to 
the destiny of the human family, as well as 
to our allegiance to the King of kings and 
Lord of lords. We exert a great influence, 
and this influence is all the time growing 
with our growth and increasing with our 
strength, for weal or for woe. It is a 
solemn world, I say, in which we live. We 
cannot stir without touching a string that 
will vibrate to all eternity. What I design, 
this morning, is to point out some of the 
characters which stand in the way of sin- 
ners and shut up the kingdom of God 
against men. 

“First. We remark that a man-pleasing 
ministry is a great obstacle in the way of 
the salvation of sinners. If I seek to please 
men, I am no more the servant of Christ. 


134 


Show Your Colors. 


Some people ask me if I don’t wish tc 
keep on the right side of men. I answer, 
I prefer to keep on the right side of God 
Almighty, and I’ll risk the consequences 
when I have the assurance that I have 
pleased God.” 

“Good point, well taken,” said the doc- 
tor. 

The audience seemed to warm towards 
the preacher as he came to his second 
point with the emphatic — 

“Mark, in the second place, all rum-drink- 
ing and rum-selling professed religionists 
stand right in the way of sinners and shut 
up the kingdom of God against men. The 
world expects that when a man professes 
religion he will be a good man, that he 
will be an example worthy of imitation, 
that he will stand on grounds of reform, 
and give his influence in favor of every- 
thing good, and against everything bad ; 
and it has a right to expect this, for 
if we embrace the religion of Jesus Christ, 
and carry that profession which He made 


Show Your Colors. 


135 

before many, I tell you the religion 
of Jesus Christ will make a good man a 
better man, and make a good man out of 
a bad man. But when the world, rum-sel- 
lers, and rum-drinkers, and others like 
them, who have not yet learned the awful 
connection between sin and misery, the 
legitimate offspring of violating the laws of 
our being, and the laws of our God, see 
these professed Christians using intoxi- 
cating drinks, why, they are astounded, 
and they falter and stumble, and they 
often turn aside from the path of temper- 
ance, and virtue, and morality, and go down 
to a premature grave, and a drunkard’s hell. 
And so God says, ‘ Blessed is the man that 
walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, 
that standeth not in the way of sinners.’ 
Now, I will give you a fact. I was one of 
the first movers in the great temperance 
cause very many years ago. I had in my 
church one good deacon. He was an ex- 
cellent man ; he loved the Bible ; he loved 
his minister ; but he was brought up in a 


136 


Show Your Colors . 


darker age, when it was supposed that there 
was no harm in drinking temperately, as 
they called it, if they never got drunk. 
When we formed a temperance society, all 
said and done, we could not get him to join 
us ; and by and by he found that all the 
rum-sellers, and all the tipplers through all 
the region round about, were hiding right 
behind him. When he was led to see that 
fact, he felt that he could not bear that re- 
sponsibility. ‘Appetite or no appetite, 
early education in the way, and what else 
beside, I will come around, touch not, taste 
not, so help me God.' And when he got 
out of the way, the whole mass of them 
were speechless, and many enrolled their 
names to total abstinence, and some were 
converted. Now, it is easy to see that that 
man was standing in the way of sinners. 
He was walking in the counsel of the un- 
godly, and they were stumbling over him 
into perdition. He was shutting up the 
kingdom of God against men. 

“ Third . Dishonesty in trade stands in the 


Show Your Colors . 


1 37 


way of Christian influence. All those per- 
sons who take more than an equivalent for 
what they give in trade are standing in the 
way of sinners. God stands upon princi- 
ples of eternal equity, and has given us a 
golden rule by which we are to be governed 
in all our business transactions — ‘ Whatso- 
ever ye would that men should do unto you, 
do ye even so unto them.’ And every 
variation from that rule on the part of 
every one who is named in the name of 
Christ, puts the one who varies in the way, 
of sinners. All know how common it is 
for men in business to overrate their 
goods, and take the advantage of their 
neighbors. If we love our neighbors as 
ourselves, we should no sooner overreach 
and defraud them than we would have 
them overreach and defraud us. And yet, 
perhaps, ninety-nine hundredths of all the 
tradesmen through all the length and 
breadth of the land violate this rule, and 
go on, and many of them profess religion 
and so are stumbling-blocks in the way 


138 Show Your Colors. 

of others. Without doubt these very per- 
sons give occasion for that very common 
remark, ‘If I want to get cheated, I will 
trade with a church-member.’ Notwith- 
standing this remark is prompted by the 
enmity of the carnal heart, what would be 
the result, suppose all the tradesmen in 
the country were to stand up and trans- 
act business on Bible principles ? Why, I 
tell you, the world would fall down and 
confess that God was in them of a truth. 

“ Fourth. I observe, all those persons who 
have a prejudicial and unkind feeling to- 
ward a brother or a sister stand in the 
way of sinners. Everybody who knows 
anything about Christianity, knows full 
well that the Christian religion sweeps the 
soul clean from the whole brood of ma- 
lignant passions that possess our fallen na- 
tures, and directly and unmistakably fills the 
heart with the love of God. Our motto is, 
‘ Glory to God in the highest ; on earth 
peace, good will toward men.’ God makes 
our enemies to be at peace with us, and 


Show Your Colors. 


139 


whenever we breathe out the slightest de- 
gree of unkind feeling or prejudice against 
one of the children of God, we hinder the 
work of saving souls. 

“ Fifth. Those who are at ease in Zion 
stand in the way of sinners. Every man 
of sense knows that ; and when we un- 
dertake to serve God at halves, we are 
standing right in the way of sinners, by 
either our indifference or our lukewarm- 
ness. A while ago I commenced a meet- 
ing in Rutland, New York. There was 
one sister in the church, a widow lady, 
whose eldest son had charge of a farm. 
The meeting commenced, and she could 
not get time to go ; yet she meant to 
come by and by. She was occupied all the 
time with her domestic duties, and the 
whole town was overrunning with Univer- 
salism and infidelity. Well, the son came 
and heard me preach a few sermons, and 
Gods truth went through and through him. 
He saw himself standing on slippery places. 
He went home in distress. He sat down 


140 ** Show Your Colors. 

in the kitchen where his mother was driv- 
ing about in her domestic matters and 
began to think. ‘ Is it possible,’ he asked 
himself, ‘ that my mother believes all I 
have heard to-day and has no concern 
about my soul ? Is it possible that she 
believes that I am as liable to wake up in 
a lake of fire before to-morrow morning 
as I am to die, and yet has no prayers to of- 
fer, no tears to shed, and no anxiety about 
my safety ? It cannot be,’ he said. He 
was driven to one of two conclusions — 
either my mother is not a Christian, or 
the Bible is all false. By and by the moth- 
er came and entered into the spirit, and 
heard Gods truth, and felt the power of 
it in her soul, and her sins loomed up be- 
fore her, and she went home distressed 
for her eldest son, not knowing what his 
feelings had been all this time ; she went 
up to her son and falling upon his neck, 
begged him with tears to forgive her. 
‘ Oh, my son,’ she said, ‘ I have been cum- 
bered about much serving, I have been 


Show Your Colors. 


Hi 

more anxious as to what we should eat and 
wear than about your eternal well-being-/ 
And his convictions came to him again, and 
he was converted to God. Now, you’ see, 
that mother stood right in the way of the 
salvation of her own son. So stands many 
a father and mother to-day, not by immoral- 
ity, but by lukewarmness, and by a want 
of a deep and thrilling interest in the sub- 
ject of religion. You may shut up the 
kingdom of God against your dearest friends 
and not know it. 

A young man came into a meeting of 
ours and begged prayers for his shopmates, 
and every day or two he would ask for 
prayers for his shopmates, and they mocked. 
One day he rose up with a heavy heart. 

‘ Oh, said he, ‘ my Christian friends, God 
has led me to see that I stand right in the 
way of the salvation of my shopmates ; they 
are stumbling over me into hell. I ask you 
to pray for me, while I go and make a con- 
fession.’ Every one of them came to prayer 
that night, and were converted to God. 


142 


Show Your Colors . 


We must be up and out of the way of sin- 
ners. We are clogging the wheels of sal- 
vation. 

“ Sixth. All those who profess to have 
been converted, yet never come out and 
confess Christ before men, have never 
obeyed the very first command after repent- 
ance. They live in actual and positive dis- 
obedience every day they live. They are 
right in the way of others. Oh, if we could 
see these men get out of the way of sinners, 
much might be done. Again, those who 
are not in attendance, as a uniform thing, on 
these meetings, stand in the way of sinners. 
It is your duty, my friends, to make a 
united, spontaneous effort for a general revi- 
val of religion. Every member of the 
church is under obligations to come up and 
do what can be done. Do all in your power 
to do. All we have, and all we are able to 
give, should be consecrated to Christ, and 
our great end in living should be to extend 
the triumphs of the Cross, and bless the 
world in which we live. When you enjoy 


Show Your Colors . 


H3 

religion you can make a great many more 
sacrifices than you can when you don’t enjoy 
it. 

“ In Henderson, N. Y., there were two 
good men of prominence and influence. 
The business of one was on a large farm ; 
that of the other on the lake. Their circum- 
stances were such that they felt it impossible 
to attend the meeting during the day. 

“ Well, all the Universalists and all the 
Swedenborgians, and everything the devil 
could scare up, were all hiding right behind 
these two men, and took it for granted that 
they didn’t approve of our meeting because 
they didn’t attend it uniformly, and they 
reported it all over town. Brother Clark 
saw it and made up his mind. He said : 

“ ‘ I will go to that meeting day and night, 
if every vessel I have got sinks in the 
lake.’ 

“ And he went to the deacon, and, said 
he : 

“ ‘ Deacon, all the wicked are hiding 
behind you and me, and I feel as though I 


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Show Your Colors . 


could make an-y sacrifice that God requires ; 
and I have made up my mind to give up all 
my business, day and night.’ 

“ ‘ Well,’ said the deacon, ‘ I am ready to 
join you.’ 

“ And on they came, and what was the 
result ? The power of God came down 
upon them, and they confessed their errors. 
Just as quick as these two men — and good 
men they were, too — got out of the way, the 
work went on. Ah, it is a dreadful thing to 
stand in the way of sinners ! I tell you this 
meeting will be a blessing or a curse to 
every soul of you, and, for all Boston, I 
would not be denied having a hand in this 
revival of religion. Remember, my dear 
friends, God has said, ‘ Blessed is he that 
walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly 
nor standeth in the way of sinners.’ If you 
will only come up to the help of the Lord, 
you will be blessed in your own soul ; you 
will be blessed in your family ; you will be 
blessed in the social circle in which you 
move ; and you will be blessed in the 


Show Your Colors . 145 

church, and blessed in Boston, and blessed 
throughout the world, and on the dying 
bed, and through all the eternities of Jesus 
Christ our head. 

“ Seventh . Sinners stand in each others 
way. No sinner goes to hell alone. When 
one turns to God, often a whole circle is led 
to Christ, and the probabilities are that all 
would have been lost had he not led the 
way. Let all be up, and stand out of the 
way of sinners by standing up for Jesus 
wherever God gives them an opportunity.” 

The concluding prayer was by the pastor. 
He cleared his skirts, the people cleared 
theirs. One after another they rose and 
spoke, among them Arthur. His rising di- 
rected all eyes toward him and Dr. Hollis- 
ter by whom he stood. He spoke of a 
friends perilous position and asked for 
prayers in his behalf. Many knew he refer- 
red to his father. Timothy Gilbert spoke of 
Gods willingness to answer prayer. Then 
Jacob Knapp prayed ; he knew of Arthur’s 
agony and he put his shoulder underneath 
10 


146 Show Your Colors. 

his burden. He prayed in such a common- 
sense way, he entered into the case so 
thoroughly, he plead with such a manifest 
purpose to win the victory that all believed 
the prayer would be answered. The con- 
gregation retired. Nina had seen her sins 
but was utterly rebellious. She could not 
bear to speak to any one, not even to Rob- 
ert, but hurried out and hurried home. Ar- 
thur returned to the sufferers bedside and 
found his father apparently much worse. It 
seemed as though he determined not to be- 
lieve. The building erected by unbelief 
had to be taken down piece by piece or 
beam by beam. The refuge of lies had to 
be abandoned. 

But while the battle raged furiously in 
one heart, others were swept by the tide- 
f wave of salvation within the reach of hope. 
In the afternoon Mr. Knapp preached again. 
Hundreds bowed to Christ after the stum- 
bling-blocks which had been placed in the 
way by Christians, had been removed. 
Fathers saw their sons broken down before 


Show Your Colors . 147 

God. Mrs. Hollister came with a broken 
heart and confessed her need of Jesus. 
Robert noted that Nina was not with 
her. The child resisted because her 
soul was inhabited by the Prince of the 
Power of the air. Out and on went the in- 
fluence from store to store, from man to 
man, from home to home. The very bells 
on the horses seemed to ring out “ Glory to 
God in the highest, peace on earth and good 
will to men.” 


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Show Your Colors . 


CHAPTER XI. 

THE STRUGGLE WITH UNBELIEF. 

W hile the song of praise was welling up 
from many a thankful heart, the home in 
which Mr. Chester battled with Christ 
seemed like a charnel-house. Arthur re- 
turned on Monday morning to college. 
Robert Graham and his friend asked him 
the particulars concerning his father’s sick- 
ness. Arthur could not talk freely. He 
could simply request them to pray. They 
did so, then and there. 

It was a touching sight to see young 
men in an Unitarian college, so-called, 
bowing before our exalted and victorious 
Christ, and pleading in behalf of the father 
of their friend. How tenderly they spoke 
of him they loved, of him who was their 
moral leader. Truly can a Christian sing : 

“Blest be the tie that binds 
Our hearts in Christian love ; 

The fellowship of kindred minds 
Is like to that above.” 


Show Your Colors . 149 

There is no love like that which flows 
from heart to heart, when Christ has pos- 
session of the soul. Arthur reviewed his 
work. That day and night he went on 
quite well, but at 1 1 o’clock the next morn- 
ing a messenger came, bearing the sad tid- 
ings that the father had lost his reason, and 
was in utter despair. 

On the way home, Arthur stopped to 
consult with Dr. Hollister. Alice came to 
the parlor and saw him while he was wait- 
ing for her father, who was engaged with a 
gentleman in the office, and said : 

“ Dear Arthur, we are in full sympathy 
with you ; but what can be done ? ” 

“We must pray,” said Arthur. 

“ Yes ; but do you know I have the feel- 
ing we must act as well ? The sickness of 
your father is designed to show all the 
emptiness and nothingness of Unitarianism, 
or of any other faith that ignores the death 
of Christ as the atonement for sin. Now, 
perhaps, we have something to do.” 

“ What?” 


1 5o Show Your Colors. 

“ Perhaps to be immersed.” 

Arthur seemed utterly overcome. He 
replied : 

“I have thought this to be my duty at 
some time, but not at present. You re- 
member what Mr. Knapp said about stand- 
ing in the way of sinners. I am resolved 
to get out of the way ; and if this is duty, I 
am ready to go forward.” 

Just then Dr. Hollister sent for Arthur, 
and he passed into the library, and said, 
after a word of explanation, “ Dr. Hollister, 
I have come to ask you about how to treat 
father. My opinion is, he is 'rebelling 
against God, and has to surrender or be 
lost ; shall I tell him so ? ’’ 

“No doubt peace of mind, no matter how 
obtained, will restore your father, but as to 
your duty I have no advice to give.” 

Arthur went home praying for help. 
There may be those who think it an easy 
matter to show ones colors, and stand for 
truth at any peril or sacrifice. They who 
thus judge have never tried it. 


Show Your Colors . i5i 

The sun was shining brightly, and yet it 
was midnight to Arthur as he passed into 
his father’s presence. The great, strong 
man was raving wildly. 

“Where is Arthur?” said he. “Am I 
to he deserted by my own kith and kin ? ” 

Mrs. Chester would reply : “ Arthur is 
coming ; you are not deserted. Your lov- 
ing wife is here ! ” 

Then he would cry out : “lam lost ! Iam 
in the waves ! Help ! Help ! ! HELP ! ! ! ” 

Just then Arthur came in. The voice 
chilled his blood. He stepped to the bed- 
side and spoke. His father recognized him ; 
clasped him about the neck ; kissed him, 
and said “ Lie down by me, my son.” 

Arthur complied at once. While lying 
there, his arm about his sons neck, he slept. 
For a long time Arthur remained silent, 
then, lifting gently the arm, he withdrew, and 
while the sufferer was unconscious, Arthur 
sought his mother. The agony of the past 
few hours had aged her. She looked years 
older than when he left her. 


i52 


Show Your Colors . 


The mother said : “ Arthur, it is terrible. 
Father must submit or be destroyed ; let us 
pray.” 

Together they besought God in one 
agony of prayer. 

For two weeks Arthur remained at home. 
Robert brought him his books ; he kept up 
with his class as best he could. 

One day the father was rational ; he was 
very weak. He said to Arthur : “ Read me 
Prov. i. 24, and on.” 

Arthur opened the Bible and drew back : 
he was fearful of the effect. 

The father said, “ Proceed ! ” 

And he read ; “ Because I have called and 
ye refused ; I have stretched out my hand 
and no man regarded ; but ye have set at 
nought all my counsel, and would none of 
my reproof : I also will laugh at your calam- 
ity ; I will mock when your fear cometh ; 
when your fear cometh as desolation, and 
your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; 
when distress and anguish cometh upon you. 
Then shall they call upon me, but I will not 


Show Your Colors . 


1*3 

answer ; they shall seek me early, but they 
shall not find me ; for that they hated knowl- 
edge and did not choose the ‘ fear of the 
Lord, therefore shall they eat the fruit of 
their own way and be filled with their own 
devices.” 

Arthur paused and looked at his father. 
His face had a new look as he said, “ Arthur, 
I have escaped that indescribable calamity. 
Turn again to your favorite tenth of Romans, 
and, read the ninth verse — -‘That if thou 
shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, 
and shalt believe in thine heart that God 
hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be 
saved.’ I have done the latter, and am 
ready to confess Christ. Call your mother.” 

Arthur brought her in. The loving wife 
clasped her husband to her heart, and cov- 
ered his pale face with kisses. 

“Sit down, Alice.” 

She sat down, holding his hand. 

“ Alic6, I am going to die — not immedi- 
ately, but soon. Send for the leading men 
of the church, and for Dr. Hollister’s family.” 


Show Yo7ir Colors . 


1 54 

Arthur directed the servant whom to 
write. Then he told how his eyes were 
opened — how he saw it all. 

“ The mission of our life is accomplished.” 

“ Don’t talk so, my husband. It has but 
just commenced.” 

“You are mistaken. I must leave my 
pulpit, should I get well. I could not 
accomplish much anywhere else. I am to 
step aside.” 

Then he made disposition of his effects, 
and gave directions what to do for Arthur 
and with Arthur, and asked for the boy. 
The noble lad stood by his father. It was a 
critical moment. He heard his words of 
advice and counsel. He spoke of the diffi- 
culties to be encountered, and that a father’s 
blessing was the largest part of his inherit- 
ance. He commended him to God, praised 
him for standing by his colors, and said it 
would be a pleasure to know that he was a 
member of the church before he should pass 
away. 

Arthur spoke of his convictions in regard 


Show Your Colors. 


1 55 


to uniting with the Baptist Church. This 
did not seem to be anything to the man so 
near to God. He seemed to understand 
what it would cost, and that it might sep- 
arate him from the Hollisters ; and when 
Arthur told him of what Alice had said, a 
load was evidently removed. He slept a 
peaceful sleep, and woke, in due time, 
refreshed. The friends arrived. Mr. Ches- 
ter told them of his conversion. He con- 
fessed Christ. He warned them of the error 
which had held him in the fetters of unbelief. 
He said : 

“ I have no doubt of your sincerity. I 
was sincere. So are the Brahmins of India, 
but they are lost, nevertheless. ‘ Be it 
known unto you all, and to all the people of 
Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of 
Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God 
raised from the dead, even by him doth this 
man appear before you whole. This is the 
stone which was set at naught of you build- 
ers, which is become the head of the corner. 
Neither is there salvation in any other ; for 


Show Your Colors. 


1 56 

there is none other name under heaven, 
given among men, whereby we must be 
saved.’ ” 

When he had finished this recitation of 
Scripture, every heart seemed touched. 
Dr. Hollister came and took his hand, and 
said : 

“ The Christ you preach has become my 
Saviour. Arthur’s experience convinced 
me. I sank into the everlasting arms of an 
infinite God, and found rest in Jesus Christ. 
I have peace which is like the flowings of a 
river, and my righteousness ‘ like the waves 
of the sea,’ coming to me from the fathom- 
less ocean of God’s love.” 

Mrs. Hollister spoke next, and said : 

“ I saw myself lost at the same time, but 
found no peace until the Sabbath afternoon 
after Mr. Knapp preached.” 

Nina was standing in the distance. Mr. 
Chester asked her to come to him. He 
took her hand and said to her : 

“ Dear child, have you found rest in 
Jesus ? ” 


Show Your Colors . 


i57 


“ No, sir.” 

“ Do you want to give all up, that you 
may have rest ? ” 

“ I cannot say that I desire it. I would 
be willing to make the exchange, but I have 
no desire for Christ.” 

“ Are you not conscious of sin ? ” 

‘‘ Yes, sir. My heart is desperately 
wicked.” 

“ Are you not afraid of its ruining you for 
time and for eternity ? ” 

“ I am.” 

“ Will you bow here, and ask God, for 
Christs sake, to take away the heart of 
stone and give you a heart of flesh, that you 
may delight in the service of Christ ? ” 

She said, after a moment’s hesitation : 

“If I can. Friends, send for Brother 
Graham.” 

At this the Unitarians, who had heard 
their old pastor respectfully but coldly, with- 
drew. As they passed out they stopped 
and spoke to Mrs. Chester, assuring her of 
their sympathy, and offering everything in 


1 58 


Show Your Colors . 


their power to relieve her from care or 
anxiety. Their politeness proved them to 
be gentlemen. Here is the power of Uni-' 
tarianism. The life many of them live is 
thought to outweigh the profession of many 
of those whose creed is orthodox, and whose 
life is not in harmony with their profession. 
Here was Mr. Knapps power. He laid 
judgment to the line, and righteousness to 
the plummet, and made all classes feel that 
the hail should sweep away the refuge of 
lies, and that the waters of God’s wrath 
should overflow their hiding-places. 

Soon Pastor Graham entered. He had 
heard of the good news, but did not care to 
intrude. He took his brother by the hand 
most cordially, and after hearing what was 
desired of him he sang — 

“ There is a fountain filled with blood 
Drawn from Immanuel’s veins, 

And sinners plunged beneath that flood 
Lose all their guilty stains.” 

“How true,” said Mr. Chester. “Sing 
the verse beginning, ‘ E’er since, by faith.’ ” 


Show Your Colors . 159 

All sang the words — 


“ E’er since, by faith, I saw the stream 
Thy flowing wounds supply, 
Redeeming love has been my theme, 
And shall be till I die.” 


The friends who were at Dr. Hollister’s 
when Mr. Chester was struck under convic- 
tion were gathered at the home of Mr. 
Chester when Nina was the last to be 
brought into the fold of Christ. After 
quoting a few passages of Scripture and 
making the way plain for Nina, Mr. Graham 
said : 

“ Robert, lead in prayer. Nina, you fol- 
low, and let others pray as they may de- 
sire.” 

All knelt down. Mrs. Chester knelt 
beside her husband, and held his hand in 
hers. 

Robert prayed in such a way that he fairly 
opened the way to the Cross for Nina. She 
cried : 

“Have mercy upon me, O Jesus, thou 


160 Show Your Colors . 

Son of God. Pardon my sins, O God, for 
the sake of Christ, who died for me. I 
yield up my pride and my wicked heart. 
Come into my soul and take up thine abode. 
Let me serve Thee.” Then exclaiming, 
“I have found him! I see Jesus! I am 
saved!” 

Mr. Graham, with a word of thanks- 
giving, turned all thoughts to his brother, 
and prayed that he might be restored to 
health. All joined in a hearty amen. 

After rising from their knees, he said to 
Mr. Chester : 

“I brought my friend Jacob Knapp with 
me. Would you like to see him ? ” 

“ Most assuredly,” was the reply. 

Mr. Graham brought him in and intro- 
duced him to all. They saw a mild-man- 
nered, unostentatious man, full of devout- 
ness, but possessed of the gentleness of a 
lamb. It was an occasion of great joy to 
hear him ask Mr. Chester in regard to his 
change of heart. His answers were very 
direct, and wholly satisfactory. 


Show Your Colors. 161 

Then singing — 


“ Oh, how happy are they 
Who their Saviour obey/’ 

the meeting broke up, after the benedictions 
of God had fallen from the wings of Jacob 
Knapps loving prayer. 


162 


Show Your Colors . 


CHAPTER XII. 

THE RESTORATION OF MR. CHESTER, AND 
ARTHUR’S PROFESSION OF FAITH. 

To the joy and surprise of all, Mr. 
Chester began to improve. His strength 
seemed to come back to him. His appetite 
returned. His Unitarian friends flocked 
about him — many among them were evan- 
gelical in sentiment. They were born into 
the Unitarian Church rather than into the 
Congregational. But they loved Christ and 
believed in Him, and were glad that their 
pastor had shared their joy. They were 
intimate with a distinguished pastor in Bos- 
ton, who, though a professed Baptist, 
believed in different denominations, and 
thought it was for the best that they 
should exist, and advised them to tell Mr. 
Chester to remain an Unitarian and preach 
Christ, saying : 

“ His people will enjoy it. Tell him not 
to touch on doctrine. Give them the 


Show Your Colors . 


sweetness and tenderness of the Gospel, 
and he will find no trouble.” 

Mr. Chester asked them to invite the 
Baptist pastor to come and see him. They 
did so. He came. Their talk was frater- 
nal. The Baptist neglected his duty and 
lost his opportunity. He said : 

“ Though a Baptist by choice and convic- 
tion, I do not deplore denominational lines, 
and have no sympathy with those who are 
trying to destroy sects, and whose intense 
sectarianism would blot out every church 
which is not of their own type, in the hope 
of merging all distinctions in themselves. 
With such Baptists, it is a favorite theory 
that all will be Baptists in the end. 

“ Allow me to say that I take entirely a 
different view of this whole subject. What 
will be possible or desirable in that perfected 
age of the world to which we are looking 
forward, we cannot now anticipate. But, as 
human nature now is, it is one of the things 
which I thank God for, that we have 
denominationalism. I would strengthen, 


164 


Show Your Colors . 


rather than weaken, its lines of division. I 
would say to each sect, stand by your 
organization. Look well to your family and 
your table. Cultivate the esprit du corps of 
your party. Do not seek to be melted into 
the families of your neighbors, nor to have* 
theirs melted into yours. If conviction con- 
strains a man to another sect as truer and 
better than his own, let him make the trans- 
fer of both his allegiance and his constancy 
to his new ecclesiastical relations, but let him 
not think, by a practical condensation of 
churches of every shade of opinion into one 
great Christian family, to eat at the same 
table under one real or implied organic 
head.” 

Mr. Chester was delighted with his senti- 
ments, and said : 

“ I am satisfied that I can do more among 
Unitarians than elsewhere, and can be the 
means of bringing them out of the darkness 
of unbelief to the joy I realize in Christ.” * 

“ Exactly,” said the Baptist. “ The glory 
and strength of Protestantism to oppose 


Show Your Colors. 1 65 

Rome, Paganism, and hell, are in its 
denominational divisions. As to what will 
be possible or desirable in that perfected 
state of Christendom to' which we look for- 
ward, I have nothing to say. But, as 
human nature now is, it is with me a subject 
of devout gratitude to God, that we have a 
well-defined denominationalism. I would 
strengthen, rather than weaken, the lines of 
division. I would exhort each sect to 
stand by its main ideas and the organi- 
zation to which they have given birth. Let 
it cultivate its own esprit du corps . Let it 
keep to its own family and its own table, 
and not be deluded into melting itself into 
other families, nor other families into itself. 
Do not enter upon a system of spiritual 
communism. It is all a delusion of the 
devil. It is an attempt to counteract the 
results of free thought, of soul liberty, which 
is the chief excellence of our modern Chris- 
tian civilization. So long as this under- 
ground fountain of free thought retains its 
fullness and its force, it will gush up in vari- 


1 66 Show Your Colors . 

ous streams, and, if you blend into one 
those that now exist, others will arise, and 
there is no preventing it without adopting 
the policy of Rome, to dry up the fountain 
itself. You must annihilate free thought 
and soul liberty before you can, as human 
nature now is, fully and finally annihilate 
denominational distinctions. I fancy there 
will be diversities of service, as there will be 
degrees in glory, even in heaven.” 

“ Quite right,” said Mr. Chester. “ This 
brings to me great relief. I had been think- 
ing it my duty to separate myself from 
my brethren, but I am satisfied, with you, 
that God knows what man is better than 
we do, and in His wise providence has set 
opinion free in these latter ages, that it 
may work itself out in denominationalism. 
Each sect is a check upon the others, and 
thought has a wide range to diversify its 
manifestations. Each sect is a spur to ex- 
ertion in the others, and in education, 
missions, Sunday-schools, and in every 
Christian enterprise, achievement is on a 


Show Your Colors. 


1 67 


fourfold scale to what it would be in a 
universal Church, reposing upon its undi- 
vided gains and uncontested honors. There 
may be much of selfishness in the desire 
of each denomination to get the largest 
slice, but it intensifies action and is every way 
safer and better and more prolific of good 
than it would be, if the same selfishness 
were condensed into a universal Protest- 
ant Curia. The Head of the Church knows 
better than we how to arrange His army 
into divisions, corps, and battle-lines, to 
render victory most certain and on the 
largest scale.” 

In accordance with this advice, Mr. 
Chester remained in the Unitarian Church. 
He preached Christ. He became noted for 
the evangelical character of his preaching. 
True, he drove away the out-and-out Uni- 
tarians, but another class rallied around him, 
and he was regarded as a great accession to 
the evangelical ranks. The orthodox were 
delighted, the heterodox were excited. Full 
of wrath, they claimed it was unfair, but the 


i68 


Show Your Colors . 


pious among them said, “We lost our Con- 
gregational churches for the lack of piety ; 
it is no more than right that we should get 
one back because of piety. Opposition 
drove Mr. Chester to Christ. He preached 
from out of his heart, and became a power, 
but was not wholly satisfied. He was fet- 
tered and hindered in his work. He could 
not get his people to meet for prayer, nor 
to work for the salvation of souls. Days 
and weeks of agony was the result. 

Arthur could not see it to be his duty to 
stop. He believed that it was incumbent on 
him to be buried with Christ, by baptism, 
unto death ; that like as Christ was raised 
up from the dead by the glory of the Father, 
even so he must walk in newness of life. 
The father and the Boston Baptist tried to 
have him consent to be immersed and stay 
in the Unitarian Church. Arthur said : “No, 
I cannot consent to that which I allow not, 
without being a transgressor. To me immer- 
sion is baptism. If this be true, none but 
the immersed are baptized. Paul commands 


Show Your Colors . 169 

me to withdraw myself from every brother 
that walketh disorderly, and not after the 
‘ instructions ye have received from me.’ I 
must obey God.” 

“ I believe,’’ said his father to Arthur, one 
evening, “ that each sect has some cardinal 
truth or truths as a battle-flag around 
which to rally, and which they are more 
effectually sustaining than it could be done 
by any other sect. The Congregationalists 
have accomplished a great mission in church 
order without a bishop. They have brought 
the individuals of the army into effective 
operation. Under Cromwell they laid the 
foundation of British liberty, and we owe to 
them our school system in this country. 
They have shed a golden light upon our 
whole country by their colleges, educated 
men, and tide of intelligent emigration. 
There is no man that honors them more 
than I do. 

“ The Presbyterians, by the application of 
law to liberty, and by their great learning, 
ability, and energetic labor in missions, have 


Show Your Colors . 


170 

in a thousand ways contributed to Protest- 
ant success. John Calvin found the Protest- 
ant cause a jumble of contradictory ideas, 
and by his powerful logic restored the chaos 
to light and order, gave it 'an ecclesiastical 
constitution, and thus shaped the Church of 
England, Scotland, and America. No single 
man has done as much to form our modern 
Christian civilization. The Episcopalians, by 
the order of their service, the odor of antiqui- 
ty breathed from their prayers and ceremo- 
nials, have exercised a healthful Christian in- 
fluence upon classes that the more plebeian 
denominations could not so well reach. The 
Methodists have kindled the fire of emotion, 
and by their itinerant system have scattered 
it all abroad. The Baptists have enrolled 
themselves around soul -liberty and the 
Christian ordinances in their unchanged 
primitive simplicity, and added their contri- 
butions to the general stock of Protestant 
power.” 

Just then Mr. Graham entered the room, 
and Arthur said : 


Show Your Colors . ij l 

Father, I wish you would restate your 
positions to Mr. Graham. For,” said he to 
Mr. Graham, “ the Baptist pastor, so will- 
ing that my father should remain an Unita- 
rian, now would persuade me to follow his 
example.” 

Mr. Chester went over the ground fully 

more fully than we have set forth — and to 
the plea for denominationalism Mr. Graham 
said : 

“ I have no apology to offer for being a 
Baptist, nor do I wish to have apologies 
made for the denomination to which I be- 
long. Christ is King. The Church is built 
in accordance with a divine model. If the 
Jews did not dare alter a single part of the 
Tabernacle, or of the altar, or of the ser- 
vice, no more would I meddle with or at- 
tempt to change a single fact connected with 
the commands of Christ, or with the order 
of His house. If men do it, and become 
Presbyterians, I am not to blame. If they 
do so, and become Episcopalians, I am not 
to blame. If they reject Christ altogether, 


Ij2 


Show Your Colors * 


and become Unitarians, I am not to blame. 
If they reject the plain and manifest teach- 
ings of the Gospel, and become Universal- 
ists, I am not to blame. My duty is plain, 
which is to preach the truth and furnish the 
truth an illustration in my life. What say 
you, Arthur? ” 

“ I say that, in my opinion, you are in the 
right, and father and this Boston Baptist are 
wrong. I must walk in the path Jesus has 
marked out for my feet, and if others dare 
neglect their duty the responsibility is on 
them, and must remain on them. It is my 
conviction that if men would give more at- 
tention to what God requires, and less to 
what would please men or secure the favor 
of men, that then the effort to work for 
Christ as He has commanded would result 
in a union in Christ, and would tend to bring 
together discordant elements, and build up 
the faith delivered to the saints in this sinful 
world.” 

“You are right,” said Mr. Graham ; “ and 
in my opinion such men as this Boston Bap- 


Show Your Colors . 


173 


tist are an injury to their own denomination 
and no help to any other. The mistake of 
the past was made when our people, afraid 
to show their colors and stand by them, 
permitted Harvard College, founded by a 
Baptist, to pass out of their hands. Brown 
University needs Baptists to support and 
uphold it, as do other institutions. The 
catholicity of a charter so much vaunted, 
admitting other denominations, in certain 
proportions, to share with Baptists in its 
government, is a hindrance rather than a 
help.” He said that if the relation which 
subsisted at the outset could be restored 
he believed that the institution would be 
blessed by it. “ That relation was of close 
mutual sympathy and even mutual propri- 
etorship. The college rested on the Bap- 
tist churches, and the churches owned the 
college. Let the Baptist members of the 
Boards of government act officially as Bap- 
tists. When a vacancy in the Baptist 
membership occurs, let the Baptist mem- 
bers see and insist that it be filled, not 


i74 


Show Your Colors . 


by a nominal Baptist, one who is as little 
a Baptist as is possible consistent with the 
name, but a representative, a pronounced 
Baptist. Concede nothing that the char- 
ter gives to the Baptist denomination. 
And let the churches do their part. As 
in the early history the members of the 
churches pledged sixpence sterling each 
to the college treasury, let each give his 
dollar, or his ten, or hundred, or thou- 
sand, or ten thousand, as God has prospered 
him.” 

“ If there is one thing above another for 
which I am grateful, it is that Arthur and 
Robert seem to feel that it is no disgrace to 
obey Jesus Christ and uphold and defend 
the truth.” 

A month passed. The regular church 
meeting of the Baptist Church came, and 
Arthur appeared to relate his experience. 
He had taken his seat in front. He was 
alone. He was not long alone. Soon Alice 
and Nina joined him. Their experiences 
evidenced that they had been with Christ 


Show Your Colors. 175 

and learned of Him. The church was 
crowded. In a few well-chosen words Ar- 
thur explained his reasons for going forward 
in the ordinance of baptism. 

At the conclusion of his remarks Alice 
arose and related the dealings of God with 
her soul. For months she had felt an unrest 
in heart and mind. She had been dissatis- 
fied with the preaching. The religion in 
vogue had not satisfied her. She felt that it 
was impossible for her to please God. She 
tried to lead a moral life, but it looked to her 
more and more as filthy rags. By the deeds 
of the law she could not be justified, for when 
she came to try and conform to the law of 
God she found her heart was prone to wan- 
der as were the sparks to fly upward, and 
she then obtained knowledge of the deplor- 
able sinfulness of the natural heart. She 
wandered in this maze of darkness for 
months. It was when Arthur found Christ 
that he held up before her the righteousness 
of God which was to be secured by the faith 
of Jesus Christ. She saw the need of a 


176 Show Your Colors . 

substitute, and that Christ offered her par- 
don as that substitute. She felt that her 
case required a power capable of propiti- 
ating' or appeasing the wrath of an infinitely 
holy God. “ For all have sinned and come 
short of the glory of God.” Then it was 
she beheld the difference between her con- 
dition and the state which Arthur was in. 
He could say : “ Being justified freely by 
his grace, through the redemption that is in 
Christ Jesus : whom God set forth to be a 
propitiation through faith in his blood, to 
declare his righteousness for the remission 
of sins that are past, through the forbear- 
ance of God ; that he might be just and the 
justifier of him who believeth in Jesus.” 

“ I could not say this. It had been my 
view that if Jesus was divine the Universal - 
ists were right in claiming that the death of 
Christ made the damnation of the sinner im- 
possible. Now I saw that only those who 
believed were saved, for this propitiation 
came through faith, not in my good works, 
not in the good life of Jesus Christ, not even 


Show Your Colors. 


1 77 


in His sufferings, but ‘ through faith in His 
blood! Then I cast myself down at the feet 
of Christ, and asked Him to undertake for 
me. I put my case into His hands and rested, 
and to my joy, as well as to my surprise, 
peace came upon me, such as I had never 
known, and such as I never dreamed 
possible. Since then it has been my hap- 
piness to serve Christ.” 

“How came you to think of joining the 
Baptist Church ? ” 

“ Simply in this way ; The command is, 
‘ Believe and be baptized.’ I had been 
sprinkled in infancy, but that does not obey 
Christ’s commands. I believe immersion to 
be the only baptism. I am anxious to fol- 
low Christ in the way He marked out for 
my feet.” 

“ Have you studied the question of com- 
munion ? ” 

“ I have.” 

“ What is your view? ” 

“ The Lord’s Supper is the memorial of 
Christ’s death, and is given to those who 


12 


iyS Show Your Colors . 

have passed from death to life, and mani- 
fested their faith in Christ by a strict com- 
pliance with his commands.” 

“Your parents are members of another 
church ? ” 

“They are.” 

“ Would you feel it to be your privilege 
to commune with them, should the Supper 
be served in the church to which they be- 
long ? ” 

“ I hope to see my parents go with me as 
I follow Christ, but should they not do so, I 
must keep with Christ, and follow Him 
whithersoever He may lead.” 

“ Do you regard baptism as a prerequisite 
to communion ? ” 

“ I do.” 

“Why?” 

“ Because the Great Commission reads : 
‘ Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations (or, 
make disciples of all nations), baptizing 
them in the name of the Father, and of the 
Son, and of the Holy Ghost ; teaching 
them to observe all things whatsoever I 


Show Your Colors. 


179 


have commanded you.’ Christ here enjoins 
three things : First, teaching men the truth, 
so as to induce them to become disciples ; 
second, baptizing them ; and third, instruct- 
ing them to observe all the Master’s com- 
mandments. The solemnity of the words 
indicates that these three things should be 
done in the order in which they are named.” 

“ You are right,” said the pastor. “ There 
is no more room in the Commission for the 
Supper before baptism than there is for bap- 
tism before faith. Baptism follows believing 
— it does not precede it — and is put forward 
as the first public act after the exercise of 
faith. ‘ He that belie veth and is baptized 
shall be saved.’ ‘ Repent and be baptized 
every one of you,’ said Peter to the multi- 
tude on the day of Pentecost. Baptism, as a 
symbol, demands the first place. The sym- 
bolical import of baptism gives it the first 
place. In baptism we are buried with Christ, 
having died to sin, and we rise with Christ 
to newness of life, having lived to righteous- 
ness. Baptism is a public profession of the 


1 80 Show Your Colors . 

new birth, and the Lords Supper signifies 
the maintenance of that new life which 
exists because of Christ having been formed 
within the soul, and it proclaims the depend- 
ence of the soul upon Christ for spiritual 
growth and power. Baptism represents re- 
generation, a single event. The Lord’s 
Supper represents our ever-recurring duty. 
We have but one birth, but we find a spread 
table a daily necessity. While, therefore, 
baptism speaks of the new birth, the Lord’s 
Supper testifies to the new life, and to the 
supply of its wants and necessities. To in- 
vert the order is to destroy the consistency 
of the symbolism, and involves as great an 
absurdity as to speak of a person taking 
food before he is born. Hence, in all de- 
nominations baptism is regarded as a pre- 
requisite to communion.” 

The deacons and church nodded assent 
to what was said. In this way were the 
young converts discipled ; they were taught 
the truth. The senior deacon arose and 
thanked the pastor for his clear statement, 


Show Your Colors. 1 8 1 

saying, “ The Pedobaptists would refuse to 
come to the Lords table, except as they should 
regard themselves as being baptized. It is not 
close communion, but close baptism which 
is the distinctive feature of a Baptist church. 
To chide Baptists with bigotry, because 
they abide by the logical consequences of 
their system, is absurd.” 

The pastor then asked the church if any 
one had questions to ask, and there being 
none, the examination closed. Mr. Gra- 
ham’s heart overflowed with thanksgiving. 
He called on a dear and honored deacon to 
render thanks, after which Nina spoke. 

Her story was brief and to the point. 
She had hoped to avoid the consideration 
of the question, but, on an evening visit at 
her fathers house, her friends, Arthur and 
Robert, had talked to her of Christ in such 
a kind and faithful manner that, though she 
tried to change the conversation and intro- 
duce topics foreign to the subject, she was 
convicted of rebellion against God. She 
became conscious of the enmity of her car- 


1 82 Show Your Colors . 

nal heart. She saw her peril and felt that 
she was lost. Then came the consciousness 
of sin. She saw that she deserved death. 
She felt that she was condemned already, 
and that the wrath of God was on her. She 
could not live. She cried for help, but it 
came not. At length she said: “We all 
gathered at the home of Mr. Chester. We 
saw him delivered from the power of the 
adversary ; that encouraged me. Then we 
bowed in prayer, and when Robert prayed 
I saw Christ on the cross, and I accepted 
Him as my Saviour and found peace.” 

The rest of her story resembled her sis- 
ter’s. They had compared experiences and 
views, and were in harmony. Then Mr. 
Graham spoke of one feature in this testi- 
mony which had delighted and encouraged 
him. It was the reference made to the 
course of Arthur and Robert in the home 
of Dr. Hollister. He was thankful that the 
young men had felt their responsibility as 
Christians, and had been rewarded for their 
faithfulness. He then appealed to the young 


Show Your Colors. 


to remember that their testimony for Christ 
was as important and oftentimes as poten- 
tial as that given by older people. The 
Sabbath and the baptism were facts long re- 
membered in the town. Dr. Hollister was, 
as usual, courteous and thoughtful, and en-' 
tered into the arrangements with delight. 
Previous to breakfast, he erected his family 
altar, and professed his faith in Christ as his 
Saviour. All prayed — father, mother, daugh- 
ters. The servants were respectfully asked 
to come in to morning prayers, and all glad- 
ly accepted the invitation. The sermon was 
all that could be desired. The text was 
found in the thirty-fourth Psalm and seventh 
verse — “ The Lord encampeth about them 
that fear him, and delivereth them.” 

“ The fact,” said the preacher, “ enumer- 
ated by the Psalmist is of inestimable value in 
this world, so variable, so fickle, and so false. 
God cares for the right and for those who 
dare enunciate it, stand by it, and uphold it. 
God holds true and good men in everlast- 
ing remembrance. He carries the shuttle 


184 


Show Your Colors. 


forward through the darkness into the light, 
to which is attached the thread of memory, 
which, entering into the web and woof of 
history, keep the names of the true and 
tried before the people, and the good in 
them lives with the ages. He will not allow 
them to be forgotten, or the good they plan- 
ned and achieved to be lost from mind. 
How wonderfully the chief butler remem- 
bered Joseph just at the right time ! How 
strange that, when Mordecai was in peril 
and was left without help from any source, 
the king was compelled to listen to the read- 
ing of the records of the Chronicles, in 
which was recorded the fact that Mordecai 
had saved the life of Ahasuerus. And the 
king said, ‘ What honor and dignity hath 
been done to Mordecai for this ? * Then 
said the kings servants that ministered unto 
him, ‘ There is nothing done for him.’ And 
the king asked, ‘ Who is in the court ? ’ The 
reply is : ‘ Haman is in the court ; ’ and so, 
just at the time when he hoped to destroy 
Mordecai, God saw that Mordecai was saved, 


Show Your Colors. 


1 85 


and honored and cared for : ‘ for the Lord 
encampeth about them that fear him, and 
delivereth them.’ There are moments in 
the lives of individuals when an action, or 
a word, or even a thought decides a destiny. 
Remarkable illustrations of this truth are 
before us.” 

Then the preacher related facts with 
which the reader is familiar, and showed 
how faithfulness had been rewarded. 

“ Obedience to God is the highest wis- 
dom ; it has always been so. It will always 
be so. Hence, it is wise and safe to serve 
God and to keep with him. It is madness 
and folly to forget him and turn from him. 
Obedience to God saved Joshua; disobedi- 
ence to God destroyed Israel. It is ours to 
learn that the Lord delights in those who 
are loyal to him, and encampeth about them 
that fear him.” 

Then, after carrying out the truth and 
making his appeal — was it a moment of in- 
spiration ? — a premonition seemed to come 
to him. He paused, and said : “ No one 


1 86 


Show Your Colors . 


can estimate the significance of our actions 
or the influence exerted by our words. This 
group of youth — who knows them ? Who 
can estimate what God will do with them ? 
Who can imagine whither they may be car- 
ried, or what they may be called upon to do ? 
The claims of the East and of the West 
are pressing upon us every hour. The 
heroic conduct of the Judsons, as they are 
preaching Christ amidst perils which are 
imminent, the demands of the millions now 
shrouded in the darkness of superstition, 
the opening of doors to fields of useful- 
ness in the Great West, and the work 
lying about us here, forces upon my mind 
the conviction that the calling of this 
group of cultured youth into His kingdom 
has deep significance. When Whitfield 
was converted, the world saw only a boy, 
but God saw in him the instrument of 
leading eighteen thousand souls to Christ. 
Let us thank God for the blessing vouch- 
safed and go forward.” 

The ordinance of baptism was adminis- 


tered. It was a solemn sight. To the 
surprise of all, Rev. Mr. Chester had hur- 
ried over from his church and stood by 
the baptistery, and saw the idol of his 
heart buried with Christ in baptism. Dr. 
Hollister led Alice and Nina to the shore 
of the Jordan, and gave them away in 
their spiritual marriage to Christ. As they 
were buried in baptism, and passed into 
the retiring rooms, the strong man went 
to his seat, burying his face in his hands, 
and wept like a child. It was not long 
before he followed them as they followed 
their Master, and the Hollister household 
became a family in Christ. The influence 
of their example went forth into all the 
land. It permeated the college ; it blesses 
the world. 


1 88 


Show Your Colors . 


CHAPTER XIII. 

RELIGION A HELP, NOT A HINDRANCE. 

There were many who married Arthur to 
Alice, and Robert to Nina. Their profession 
of religion was to them only a part of a play. 
They could understand it and perceive the 
end from the beginning. They could not 
understand that it was possible for religion 
to be more than a play. They could not 
believe that it was a living, vital force ; that 
it has to do with purposes and plans which 
find in God their origin, and in man their 
sphere of operation. They cannot fathom a 
love that acts for Christ and souls, irrespect- 
ive of personal considerations. Arthur ad- 
mired Alice. Who could help it ? She was 
lovable. She was talented, pious, discreet, 
cultured. There was work for her to do. 
Her wealth gave her opportunities to do 
good. Her love for Christ made her a mis- 
sionary as soon as it made her a Christian. 


Show Your Colors . 189 

Arthur went on and completed his course of 
study. 

The troubles he bore steadied him. He 
was notorious. His course of conduct had 
attracted attention to himself. He felt that 
he was indeed a marked man, quite as much 
as others felt that he was to be a man of 
mark. In college he was an example to all. 
He stood fast by the truth. He was an ad- 
vocate of temperance ; and he lived up to his 
principles. He put his whole heart into the 
work of winning souls, and became a power 
for good. After the revival meetings were 
over he was distinguished for a zeal that 
was quenchless, and for a devotion that was 
never cooled. And so the work rolled on. 
Tremont theatre was closed. On the 2d of 
March, 1842, was this announcement : “ The 
friends of morality and religion will rejoice to 
learn that the great theatre of Boston, ‘ The 
Tremont,’ is closed, and that noble granite 
edifice is offered for sale, and is likely to be 
converted into a house of worship.” At the 
conclusion of a late entertainment, the 


190 


Show Your Colors . 


manager announced that the theatre would 
be closed, and stated that within the last 
three months they had lost ten thousand 
dollars by keeping it open. The rush was 
in a different direction. Timothy Gilbert 
bought it, and Nathaniel Colver for ten 
years preached Christ to multitudes of men 
and women. Universalists saw hell un- 
covered and every vestige of Universalism 
swept away. Jacob Knapp went from place 
to place, like a general on the field of battle, 
giving aid wherever needed. The revival was 
characterized by the apparent genuineness of 
the conversions. The converts exhibited a 
clear understanding of the evil of sin, the 
holiness of God’s laws, the doctrine of jus- 
tification by faith, and the necessity of an 
entire consecration of heart to God, because 
everywhere the community saw in the great 
preacher, and in thousands besides, people 
who were not afraid to show their colors . 
Days come and go — weeks glide into 
months. The excitement of the revival has 
gone, the genuineness and development of 


Show Your Colors . 19 1 

growth has begun. Arthur leads his class 
as a student. The secret of his success was 
found in this. He did well what he had to 
do, and then proceeded to do the next thing 
well. This first, and then the next, was his 
rule. Because of this he was a power in 
the college. The Faculty rested on him 
with hope. 

His religious life helped. It gave direction 
to his aims and thoughts. Did he peer into 
the mysteries of science, he beheld manifes- 
tations of God’s power. He carried to his 
Bible-class on Sabbath the lessons he 
gleaned on the harvest-fields of thought dur- 
ing the week. 

Robert went more and more into com- 
pany. Nina became a necessity to his life. 
He laid at her feet the wreaths of fame 
won in the realm of poetry and literature. 
As a scholar he ranked high, but as a poet 
and as a writer he stood without a peer. 
Arthur was distinguished as an orator 
and as a moral force. His gr^sp of truth, 
and his ability to weigh reasons for 


192 


Show Your Colors . 


and against a position were very great. 
He had a reserved strength which helped to 
carry his point without difficulty, when he 
put it forth. In debate he was nearly 
always victorious. His life was a mallet 
with which to drive the chisel of his tongue. 
James Strong, distinguished for many 
things, had sunk in the moral scale in pro- 
portion as Arthur had risen. Strong was 
only strong in name. He. was weak in 
fact. He professed religion and never lived 
it. He was a member of the Church, and 
seldom attended it. The Church did not 
know him, and did not think of him. The 
world saw that he was not true as a Chris- 
tian, and did not believe him to be true as a 
man. He was regarded as talented but 
as false. His word was not reliable. The 
boys said “ he drew on his imagination for 
facts, and on his memory for wit.” 

In every college there are occasions 
when a man is weighed. His word, his 
character, his. capacity, his value, comes to 
be known. What is true of boys, is no less 


Show Your Colors . 


193 


true of men. Such an occasion arose in 
Harvard. The class was to vote upon the 
men who should represent them at Com- 
mencement. James Strong' was exceedingly 
ambitious to have a prominent place. He 
worked for the highest honor ; not so much 
in his room, to deserve it, as among the 
young men to obtain it by influence. He 
sneered at Arthur, called him pious but not 
brilliant, fair as a scholar, but not distin- 
guished for genius or for great power as 
an orator. Arthur worked on. He lived 
a true life. James Strong tried to feign 
it. The time came when he saw that 
religion would help him. He attended col- 
lege prayer-meetings and took a part, and 
was anxious that every one should wake up 
and take hold. In the church-conference 
meeting he got off studied orations. Arthur 
talked of the constraining love of Christ, and 
of how he enjoyed his Saviour. The night 
of trial came, and Arthur, without a move on 
his own part, bore off the prize. The boys 
gave it to him without delay. Weight of 


194 


Show Your Colors. 


character and solid merit, outweighed bom- 
bast and pretension. 

When the news reached Dr. Hollister, his 
delight and joy was very great. He sent for 
Arthur to take tea with him, and con- 
gratulated him. Arthur said, “You know 
Henry Thornton of England used to say, 
when his children rejoiced to see the long 
triumphal procession after an election : ‘ I 
would rather have a shake of the hand from 
good old John Newton, then the cheers of 
all that foolish mob, who praise me, they 
don’t know why.’ And, Dr. Hollister, your 
congratulations are inexpressibly precious 
to me.” 

“ Speaking of Thornton, do you remember, 
Arthur, that it was the example of Wilber- 
force that won him to better things ? He 
had observed that Wilberforce, in his 
crowded, active life, always kept a morning 
hour inviolate, and his Sundays holy. 
What you have done for God, Arthur, has 
helped you.” “I believe it,” replied the 
Christian. “ I have sent for you, dear 


Show Your Colors. 195 

Arthur, to help me. I am in trouble such 
as I never dreamed it possible for me to 
have.” 

Arthur looked at his friend, and was sur- 
prised at the haggard look he wore. 

“ What is the matter ? ” 

“ Only this : Alice has resolved to go as 
a missionary to India.” 

“ Alice ? ” 

“Yes, Alice.” 

“ When did she reach that conclusion ? ” 

“ Within a few days. She has been read- 
ing on this subject for months. There is 
now a special need of helpers, and the 
want is expressed for a young lady, unmar- 
ried, to go and take charge of a school for 
girls, and Alice has accepted the call, and is 
going.” 

Arthur paused a moment, looked up, and 
with a pale face, but with a bright eye, said, 
“I am not surprised. It is like her. God 
gave His Son to save her. She has given 
all she has to Christ, and is ready to go 
wherever He may desire her to go. ” 


196 


Show Your Colors . 


“ Did you know about it ? ” 

“ Never heard of it before. But I expected 
this or something else. God has use for her.” 

“ Arthur, my friend, let me speak plain to 
you. Have you nothing to urge against 
it ? ” 

Arthur looked into his friend’s face and 
replied, “ Nothing ; I should do the same my- 
self were I called.” 

Dr. Hollister was unmistakably surprised, - 
and seemed, for the moment, terribly dis- 
appointed, but he was silent. He saw now 
that they had loved Christ, and so had 
loved each other. 

Arthur asked that Alice might come in. 
She came and greeted him with delight. 
They talked about India with enthusiasm. 
About the work to be done, as Christians 
should. Self did not enter into their calcu- 
lations or thoughts. After a while Arthur 
asked, “ When do you go ? ” 

She replied, “ It depends upon the ship. 
It may be in three weeks, it may be months 
yet.” 


Show Your Colors. 


197 


Arthur simply remarked. “ My graduation 
will lose its charm if you cannot hear me ; 
but no matter, go forward.” 

Dr. Hollister saw their faith and trust. 
They bowed in prayer together, and there 
and then the cloud was lifted, the father 
yielded all to Christ, and worked for Alice as 
though he were going with her. 

Arthur went back to college, and told 
•Robert the story. It overcame him. Ar- 
thur had been disturbed but had not yielded. 
He knew not what it meant. In his own 
heart he had felt no drawing to a foreign 
field. The work before him had occupied 
his thoughts. 

THE COMMENCEMENT 

came. Arthur bore off the honors of the 
college; but Roberts oration, as a literary 
performance, was regarded as superior to 
anything delivered during the day. The 
press hailed him as a star. 

Both of these young men rejoiced in each 
other’s joy, and was proud of each other’s 


Show Your Colors . 


198 

success. Indeed, it was note- worthy that 
neither of them lived for themselves. 

At night the party at Dr. Hollister’s was 
the talk of the town. The departure of 
Alice for India had been announced. Dr. 
Hollister determined to honor Arthur and 
Alice, and at the same time permit Alice to 
behold the culmination of Nina’s joy. 

The mansion is ablaze with light. The 
grounds in front, and the garden in the rear, 
are brilliantly illumined. Boston, Cam- 
bridge, Newton, Brookline, and Roxbury 
pour in upon them their representative 
people. Nine o’clock comes. There is a 
pause. In the parlor, where a few years 
ago all sang 

“ Jesus, lover of my soul. 

Let me to thy bosom fly ; 

were gathered the same company. Arthur 
and Alice lead the way, followed by Robert 
and Nina. Rev. Messrs. Graham and Ches- 
ter unite in the ceremony, and Robert and 
Nina are made one in name, as love had 
made them one in sentiment and purpose. 


Show Your Colors . 


199 


In the midst of the pleasant greetings 
bestowed upon them, Arthur reminded Rob- 
ert of the lecture he gave him in college 
against getting in love while a student, and 
of his having advised one course and taken 
another. Robert had but little' to say, 
except to declare that it was impossible for 
him to have done differently, and to inti- 
mate that if Arthur had not been beside 
himself, he would have managed to have 
kept in America this foreign missionary. 
Arthur came to the rescue of Alice, saying, 
“‘Christ first and all else second ; ’ my hap- 
piness in seeing her giving herself as a bride 
to Christ, could not be increased by the grat- 
ification of any selfish considerations.” It 
was making religion mean something. The 
influence exerted by her conduct enabled all 
to understand these words she selected and 
sang at the close of the evening : 

“Now, O God, thine own I am, 

Now I give Thee back mine own 
Freedom, friends, and health and home, 
Consecrate to Thee alone ; 

Thine I live, thrice happy I ! 

Happier still, if thine I die. 


200 


Show Your Colors . 


“ Take me, Lord, and all my powers ; 
Take my mind, and heart, and will ; 
All my goods, and all my hours. 

All I know, and all I feel, 

All I think, or speak, or do — 

Take my soul, and make it new. n 


Show Your Colors . 


201 


CHAPTER XIV. 

LEARNING AND TESTING. 

The time has come to part with the 
school-girl, and to behold the woman, and 
to watch the student assuming the responsi- 
bilities of manhood. It is pleasant to know 
that the lessons learned at the hearth-stone 
were practiced all round the world. There 
was great meaning in what a Romish bishop 
said, who declared, “ Give me the children 
until they are five years old, and I care not 
who has them afterwards. ” Much is said 
to-day about the influence of mothers. 
Much might be said about the influence of 
fathers. Arthur Chester had the training 
of a careful, pains-taking father, as well as of 
a devoted and talented mother, and Alice 
Hollister enjoyed a similar blessing. Her 
father lived for her, and lived in her. She 
was the pride of his life, and the light of 
his eyes. Both of them were educated to 
live for God. The world did not control 


202 


Show Your Colors . 


them. They lived above it. Alice was a 
missionary at home. Her power abroad 
came from her being a power at home. Go 
where we will, it is impossible to get away 
from ourselves. What we are, in d,ue time 
we seem to be. Alice was true to Christ. 
The Lord Jesus was her beloved. The 
prayer of her heart was, “ Set me as a seal 
upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm ; 
for love is as strong as death. Many waters 
cannot quench love, neither can the floods 
drown it.” This sentiment characterized 
her every action and word. In the house 
she was as “ the lily. ” Her father said of 
her, “ Many daughters have done virtuously, 
but thou excellest them all. Favour is 
deceitful, and beauty is vain ; but a woman 
that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised.” 
She seemed to all, and to none more than 
to Arthur, as the bride of Christ. She was 
a Sister of Charity, indeed. At the wharf 
where she bid her friends adieu, the grief of 
Dr. Hollister seemed indescribable. He bore 
his pain without giving expression to his 


Show Your Colors . 


203 


emotions. Arthur was deathly pale, and 
fearfully calm. Alice went with him into 
the cabin ; there he prayed for her, and 
kissed her, and came back, and having - done 
f° r her comfort all in his power, he bade 
her farewell, so soon as the religious exer- 
cises were closed, leaving her with her 
friends. Years passed. Arthur entered 
upon his work as a minister. He enjoyed 
the pleasures of his new life. He gave 
himself wholly to the preaching of Christ. 
Robert was elected to a position of great 
literary responsibility, and came back to the 
family mansion, and is now not only the 
pride of Dr. Hollister, but is the joy and 
delight of his wife. He understands her 
and appreciates her. With Nina he has 
seen the Old World and the New. They 
visited Alice in her Indian home, and found 
her happy in the midst of toil. He has 
written of what he has seen and felt in 
words that were not born to die. His quiet 
unostentatious life has produced a marked 
impression upon his time. The name of 


204 Show Your Colors. 

Arthur is often seen in the public prints. 
Baptists love him. All others respect him. 
He has stood by his colors, and is a glorious 
illustration of what it is to be a full man for 
Christ Jesus the Lord. 

Years had gone. Arthur was in the West 
— the center of a great influence. With 
Alice he had kept up a correspondence 
which would, if published, be a valuable 
contribution to literature. Alice had de- 
scribed her work. She had spoken of its 
difficulties and of its triumphs. At length 
the letters ceased to come. Arthur knew 
not the cause. It was intimated that her 
health had failed, and that she was coming 
home. Months passed ; no tidings came from 
India, or from Boston. Arthur held on in 
his work. One day, which had been set 
apart for humiliation and prayer, Arthur 
passed much of his time on his knees before 
God. To his surprise all this day the face 
of Alice was between him and God. He 
was troubled. For years he had refused to 
enter into social life, and had, as much as 


Show ^ Your Colors . 2o5 

possible, kept out of the society of ladies. A 
new feeling was stirred in his heart. He 
knew not what it meant. Over and over 
again the vision came. He cried to God 
for souls and for the church, and saw only 
one sweet, loving face. The night came. 
All day he had feared that the one being 
whom he respected and dared not marry, 
was dead. He had asked God to take the 
vision away. At length, while upon his 
knees, this prayer came to him, “ Dear 
Father, if Thou intendest to bring to this 
poor heart the love of Alice Hollister, and 
if Thou desirest she should be my wife, 
then let me have a sign from Thee, and I 
will go for her to the ends of the earth.” 

As he reached his boarding-place a letter 
was put into his hands, asking him to come 
to Boston on important business, saying, We 
have news from Alice. That night Arthur 
started, and in due time reached the dear 
old home. As he approached the house 
he found indications of sickness. At the 
door he is welcomed by Dr. Hollister, 


206 Show Your Colors . 

who tells him of the sickness of Alice and 
of her desire to see him. 

“ Is she in great danger ? ” 

“ Perhaps so ; perhaps not ; we shall 
see.” 

Then he relates how she was stricken 
down by fever ; and did not rally. The 
missionaries, to save her life, sent her home, 
but she does not gain strength. “ She 
wants to see you. Go in and see her, and 
may God guide you.” 

Arthur passed in to the chamber of sick- 
ness. The face of Alice shone with the 
light of God, and her eye flashed with the 
radiance of love. Arthur shook with sup- 
pressed emotion as he looked upon her 
wasted features. He kissed her, and then, 
holding her hand, asked the friends to 
retire and leave him alone. The request 
was heeded. Then, without hesitation, he 
said : 

“ Alice, could you love me ? ” 

“ I have always loved you, Arthur.” 

“ Could you be my wife ? ” 


Show Your Colors . 


20 7 


“ Are you not engaged ? ” 

I am not, or I could not have asked you 
the first question.” 

“ I heard you were, and that you were to 
be married. I think, if I had not heard 
that, I could have recovered. It had been 
my pleasure to serve Christ in India, while 
you served Him in America. I hoped, as 
a sister of Christ, to have met you, the 
brother of Christ, in Heaven, and been with 
you evermore. But I was too weak to give 
you to another. You seemed to be mine, 
and, as such, Christ was welcome to all 
there was of you. But I was too sick, or 

too selfish, or too ” and here she broke 

down, and Arthur needed not that she 
should finish the sentence, but, with flooded 
eyes, said : 

“ It is enough. God is better to us than 
I dared dream, for, Alice, next to Christ, I 
have been yours always, but I never knew, 
until now, that God had given you to 
me.” 

Then he related his experience on the 


208 


Show Your Colors. 


prayer day. as it occurred, and added, as he 
covered the thin face with kisses : 

“ My darling, we have served Christ 
apart. We will serve Him together hence- 
forth.” 

When Dr. Hollister entered the room to 
find out if both had died, he found that both 
had begun to live. There was a sweet rest 
and contentment on the face of Alice, as 
she permitted her hand to lie in the hand 
of Arthur, when he looked up, and said : 

“ Dr. Hollister, will you trust me to take 
care of this daughter of yours ? God has, 
in a manner very surprising to me, indicated 
His wish, and now I wait your consent.” 

“ Why, Arthur, if you had not been blind 
as a bat, you would have asked this ques- 
tion before Alice went to India. It had 
always been my expectation, and it was the 
bitterest disappointment of my life when I 
was compelled to give up the hope. But it 
is well. You have both manifested a love 
for Christ which did not depend upon 
human sympathy. Having been so true 


Show Your Colors . 


209 


apart, I am sure you will be blessed in each 
other’s love, and I ask no greater joy.” 

In came Mrs. Hollister, and Nina, with 
her young Arthur. 

Alice was in a new world. The heart- 
pain was cured. Life came back slowly but 
surely. In a few weeks, in the church 
where they were baptized, they were mar- 
ried, and they went forth to their field of 
labor. Arthur, successful before, became 
more useful in the future. The wisdom, the 
strength, the experience, and the devotion 
of Alice to Christ, helped him and made him 
an increasing power with God and a wiser 
leader of men. His life and her life, and all 
of those lives lived for God, proves that it 
is safe to stand with God and for God, and 
that God cares for those who put their trust 
in Him, as it would be impossible for them 
to care for themselves. 



NOTICE. 


OLD GRIPS AND LITTLE TID ; or. Juvenile Benev« 

olence. By Rev. Joseph Banvard, D. D. A new and enlarged edition, 

with two elegant wood-cuts. 16mo. Cloth, 75 cents. 

“It is an impressive lesson on Juvenile Benevolence, and we hope it 
may have a wide circulation .”— Journal and Messenger. 

“ Real Benevolence, however humble the scale on which it is exercised 
is here shown, by literal facts, to be a means of double blessin" It is a 
most interesting, profitable, and instructive story.”— Christian Instructor. 

“It is one of Dr. Banvard’s pleasant stories, and conveys some very 
good lessons on Juvenile Benevolence— lessons very desirable to be 
learned in early life.”— Christian Secretary. 

“It will be found very instructive for children and even for their 
parents.”— Christian Era. 


SAYINGS AND DOINGS OF CHILDREN. By Rev. J. 

Byington Smith. 18mo. Cloth, 75 cents. 

“ Illustrations for home and Sunday-school use. It will be of service 
to parents and teachers, and especially to those who are accustomed to 
address children .” — Christian Intelligencer . 

“The sayings and doings of children are remarkable. It is very sug- 
gestive and entertaining for the support of illustration .”— Sunday School 
Times. 


THE YOKE AND BURDEN; or, TIte Rewards of a 
Well-Spent Life. By Clara Kennet. Large 12mo, 406 pp. 
$1.50. 

No one who reads this book will regret it. It enlarges and lifts the 
soul above, and yet so attractive in style, as to command the reading of it 
by the most thoughtless. 


SENT BY MAIL, POST PAID, ON RECEIPT OF PRICE. 


T> Q OUNDAY SCHOOL Libraries made up from the very 

* *JL O best lists and newest books. If you wish us to 

select your library, and send to the School, you can do so with perfect 
safety, as, when we take this responsibility, no Books will be sent but such 
as are thoroughly read and approved. In this case send old catalogue to 
prevent duplicating, and name amount. If not satisfactory will exchange. 
Everything needed by Sunday-Schools. All the latest publications of the 
day, adapted for family and social reading, also Minister’s Library, and 
Church Music, Sunday-School Banners, Mottoes, Maps, Aids, and Singing 
Books, etc., etc. Liberal discounts allowed. 

U. D. WARD, Publisher, 

150 Nassau Street, (Up Stairs,) 


NEW YORK. 







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